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Blood pressure-lowering treatment for preventing recurrent stroke, major vascular events, and dementia in patients with a history of stroke or transient ischaemic attack.

Background and Purpose-We compared outcome and complications in patients with stroke treated with intravenous thrombolysis (IVT) who could not live alone without help of another person before stroke (dependent patients) versus independent ones. Methods-In a multicenter IVT-register-based cohort study, we compared previously dependent (prestroke modified Rankin Scale score, 3-5) versus independent (prestroke modified Rankin Scale score, 0-2) patients. Outcome measures were poor 3-month outcome (not reaching at least prestroke modified Rankin Scale [dependent patients]; modified Rankin Scale score of 3-6 [independent patients]), death, and symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage. Unadjusted and adjusted odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (OR [95% confidence interval]) were calculated. Results-Among 7430 IVT-treated patients, 489 (6.6%) were dependent and 6941 (93.4%) were independent. Previous stroke, dementia, heart, and bone diseases were the most common causes of preexisting dependency. Dependent patients were more likely to die (OR unadjusted , E.).The online-only Data Supplement is available with this article at http://stroke.ahajournals.org/lookup/suppl