Characteristics of stroke cases, acute stroke care, and outcomes after stroke differ according to geographical and cultural background. To provide epidemiological and clinical data on stroke care in South Korea, we analyzed a prospective multicenter clinical stroke registry, the Clinical Research Center for Stroke-Fifth Division (CRCS-5). Patients were 58% male with a mean age of 67.2±12.9 years and median National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score of 3 [1-8] points. Over the 6 years of operation, temporal trends were documented including increasing utilization of recanalization treatment with shorter onset-to-arrival delay and decremental length of stay. Acute recanalization treatment was performed in 12.7% of cases with endovascular treatment utilized in 36%, but the proportion of endovascular recanalization varied across centers. Door-to-IV alteplase delay had a median of 45 [33-68] min. The rate of symptomatic hemorrhagic transformation (HT) was 7%, and that of any HT was 27% among recanalization-treated cases. Early neurological deterioration occurred in 15% of cases and were associated with longer length of stay and poorer 3-month outcomes. The proportion of mRS scores of 0-1 was 42% on discharge, 50% at 3 months, and 55% at 1 year after the index stroke. Recurrent stroke up to 1 year occurred in 4.5% of patients; the rate was higher among older individuals and those with neurologically severe deficits. The above findings will be compared with other Asian and US registry data in this article.

http://j-stroke.org 43 100,000 individuals, with regional disparities. As for stroke risk factors, the prevalence of smoking is decreasing in men but not in women, and the prevalence of alcohol drinking is increasing in women but not in men. Population-attributable risk factors vary with age. Smoking plays a role in young-aged individuals, hypertension and diabetes in middle-aged individuals, and atrial fibrillation in the elderly. About four out of 10 hospitalized patients with stroke are visiting an emergency room within 3 hours of symptom onset, and only half use an ambulance. Regarding acute management, the proportion of patients with ischemic stroke receiving intravenous thrombolysis and endovascular treatment was 10.7% and 3.6%, respectively. Decompressive surgery was performed in 1.4% of patients with ischemic stroke and in 28.1% of those with intracerebral hemorrhage. The cumulative incidence of bleeding and fracture at 1 year after stroke was 8.9% and 4.7%, respectively. The direct costs of stroke were about ₩1.68 trillion (KRW), of which ₩1.11 trillion were for ischemic stroke and ₩540 billion for hemorrhagic stroke. The great burden of stroke in Korea can be reduced through more concentrated efforts to control major attributable risk factors for age and sex, reorganize emergency medical service systems to give patients with stroke more opportunities for reperfusion therapy, disseminate stroke unit care, and reduce regional disparities. We hope that this report can contribute to achieving these tasks.

Background and Purpose-An effective stroke code system that can expedite rapid thrombolytic treatment requires effective notification/communication and an organized team approach. We developed a stroke code program based on the computerized physician order entry (CPOE) system and investigated whether implementation of this CPOE-based program is useful for reducing the time from arrival at emergency departments (ED) to evaluation steps and the initiation of thrombolytic treatment in various hospital settings. Methods-The CPOE-based program was implemented by 10 hospitals. Time intervals from arrival at the ED to blood tests, computed tomography scanning, and thrombolytic treatment during the 1-year period before and the 1-year period after the program implementation were compared. Results-Time intervals from ED arrival to evaluation steps were significantly reduced after implementation of the CPOE-based program. Times from ED arrival to CT scan, complete blood counts, and prothrombin time testing were reduced by 7.7 minutes, 5.6 minutes, and 26.8 minutes, respectively (PϽ0.001). The time from ED arrival to intravenous thrombolysis was reduced from 71.7Ϯ33.6 minutes to 56.6Ϯ26.9 minutes (PϽ0.001). The number of patients who were treated with thrombolysis increased from 3.4% (199/5798 patients) before the CPOE-based program to 5.8% (312/5405 patients) afterward (PϽ0.001). The CPOE implementation also improved the inverse relationship between onset-to-door time and door-to-needle time. Key Words: acute stroke Ⅲ computerized physician order entry Ⅲ stroke Ⅲ thrombolysis T he efficacy of intravenous (IV) tissue plasminogen activator in acute ischemic stroke is time-dependent. 1,2 However, a recent systemic review indicated that the average time from a patient's arrival at the emergency department (ED) to the initiation of thrombolytic treatment exceeded 60 minutes in most studies. 3 There have been several efforts to reduce in-hospital time delays, including reorganization of the ED, 4 use of point-of-care international normalized ratio testing, 5 and use of an acute stroke triage pathway. 6 Stroke code systems and stroke team activities based on care protocols may expedite rapid thrombolytic treatment. 4 However, operation of a stroke code system requires many resources, effective communication between staff members of various departments, and adequate monitoring with feedback to continually improve the system. One promising approach for an effective stroke code system is using computerized physician order entry (CPOE). CPOE is a process that physicians use to enter medical orders electronically. These medical orders are communicated over a computer network linked to a hospital information system with physicians, nurses, technicians, and other staff in various departments. 7 accurate and rapid medical order entry and enables relevant staff to access necessary information immediately. Because CPOE permits capture of time data for individual steps more easily and objectively, it is useful to monitor the program's e...