According to data published by the American Heart Association (AHA) in their 2006 update of heart disease and stroke statistics, "on average, someone in the United States suffers a stroke every 45 seconds."1 Furthermore, the AHA reports, approximately 700,000 persons annually experience a new or recurrent stroke, 88% of which are ischemic: however, only "8% to 12% of ischemic strokes result in death within 30 days." Because the majority of persons survive ischemic stroke, there is a need for a broader armamentarium of thrombolytic therapies than that which currently exists.
