The prevalence rate of dementia was low in this Chinese population. Consistent with common findings from other parts of the world, a high rate of dementia was associated with older age and illiteracy, and Alzheimer's disease was the most frequent cause.

This article represents the update of ‘European Stroke Initiative Recommendations for Stroke Management’, first published in this Journal in 2000. The recommendations are endorsed by the 3 European societies which are represented in the European Stroke Initiative: the European Stroke Council, the European Neurological Society and the European Federation of Neurological Societies.

In America and Europe, the current recommended dose of recombinant tissue-type plasminogen activator (r-tPA) for acute ischemic stroke is 0.9 mg/kg, but a similar study with this dosage has never been replicated in a controlled trial in East Asia. A lower dose (0.6 mg/kg) of r-tPA was used in Japan and was proved to have similar outcomes compared with a dose of 0.9 mg/kg in Western countries.1,2 However, the Safe Implementation of Thrombolysis in Stroke-Non-European Union World (SITS-NEW) study demonstrated that the safety and efficacy of the dose of 0.9 mg/kg of r-tPA in an Asian population was similar to those of the Safe Implementation of Thrombolysis in Stroke-Monitoring Study (SITS-MOST) study in the European population. 3,4 Our previous study, the Taiwan Thrombolytic Therapy for Acute Ischemic Stroke (TTT-AIS) study, was the first to determine whether the thrombolytic therapy in routine clinical use was as safe and effective in Chinese patients as in white patients. 5 The preliminary results showed that the group receiving a dose of 0.9 mg/kg had higher rates of symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage (SICH), dependence, and mortality within 3 months than the low-dose group (<0.85 mg/kg). This finding was more prominent in older patients aged ≥70 years.Background and Purpose-The relationship between the dose of recombinant tissue-type plasminogen activator (r-tPA) and its safety/efficacy for ischemic stroke has not been well evaluated in the East Asian population. We assessed the safety/efficacy of different doses of r-tPA for acute ischemic stroke in Chinese patients. Methods-A total of 1004 eligible patients were classified according to the dose of r-tPA received for managing acute ischemic stroke: 0.9 mg/kg (n=422), 0.8 mg/kg (n=202), 0.7 mg/kg (n=199), and 0.6 mg/kg (n=181). The safety outcome was symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage and death within 3 months. The efficacy outcome was good functional outcome (modified Rankin Scale ≤1) at 3 months. Results-There was a significant trend for symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage with age (P=0.002). With multivariate logistic regression analysis, a dose of 0.9 mg/kg was a predictor of symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage (P=0.0109), and a dose ≤0.65 mg/kg was a predictor of good functional outcome (P=0.0369). In patients aged 71 to 80 years, there was a significant trend of increasing symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage (P=0.0130) and less good functional outcome (P=0.0179) with increasing doses of r-tPA. There was also a trend of increasing mortality (P=0.0971) at 3 months in these patients. Conclusions-These