Objective      To analyze the feasibility and safety of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for acute ischemic stroke patients before thrombolysis.       Methods      During April 2010 to May 2012

MRI was employed to evaluate in patients referred with presumed acute stroke to optimize the procedure of thrombolysis in our hospital. Onset to treatment time (OTT)

door to needle time (DNT)

and clinical outcomes after thrombolytic treatment were compared with other published open label studies based on conventional CT protocol.       Results      There were 108 patients enrolled in this study

and 100 of them (92.6%) received MRI before thrombolysis. The median OTT was 180 min

and the median DNT was 85 min. Modified Rankin scale (mRS) indicated that in 90 d after treatment mRS 0-1 was accomplished in 55 patients (50.9%)

and symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage (sICH) was found in 4 patients (3.7%). Compared with the data based on CT scanning

our results were better than those of the Chinese National Stroke Registry and the Helsinki Stroke Thrombolysis Registry respectively.       Conclusion      MRI can be performed in acute stroke patients without delaying rt-PA treatment

or leading to worse outcomes. MRI before intravenous thrombolysis is feasible and safety under the optimized designed protocol.