Stroke Treatment Window Widens
New approach could save hundreds of thousands a year
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Strokes are caused by a blockage of blood flowing to the brain.
Once you start to have symptoms of stroke there's only a tiny window of time for you to get life-saving treatment. Now, research from Stanford School of Medicine has cracked that window open a little bit wider.
If a patient arrive at the emergency room more than three hours after experiencing stroke symptoms current guidelines say a potent clot-busting medication that could save brain tissue should not be used.
But Stanford's new study suggests the traditional three-hour time window is too short. By combining data from several clinical trials researchers showed that treatment can benfiti patients up to four anf a half hours after they experience their first symptoms . You can read more about the findings in the Journal Stroke.
In addition Stanford is using a specially developed software program called RAPID that can immediately determine the best course of treatment and whether a patient would be a good candidate to receive treatment after the traditional three hour window.
Experts estimate that roughly 15 percent of patients at Stanford come in during the three- to 4.5-hour time window. Nationwide 680,000 stroke victims a year arrive at the hospital three hours after first symptoms.
Posted Sunday, Jul 12, 2009 - 11:23 AM CST
