Strokes are a major cause of death and disability

Strokes are a major cause of death and disability

And I’m Doug Johnson. This week, we will tell about a drug treatment for stroke victims.

VOICE ONE:

Strokes are a major cause of death and disability. A stroke is a loss of blood flow in the brain. There are two kinds of strokes. An ischemic stroke happens when a blood vessel in the brain gets blocked. A bleeding, or hemorrhagic, stroke happens when a blood vessel breaks.

People are more likely to die from a hemorrhagic stroke. But ischemic strokes are more common, and doctors may be able to treat them.

A drug called tissue plasminogen activator, or tPA, can break up blood clots. But experts generally advise against using the drug if more than three hours have passed after the first signs of a stroke.

VOICE TWO:

There is a risk that giving a patient a strong blood thinner during a stroke can cause bleeding inside the brain. The longer the wait, experts say, the more likely that the risks of treatment will be too great.

But recent findings suggested that tPA may be effective in saving brain tissue even if three to four and a half hours have passed.

Some studies have failed to produce clear evidence to support treatment after three hours. But researchers reported recently that the evidence was stronger when they combined the results of the four major studies already done.

VOICE ONE:

The findings were published in the journal Stroke. The researchers said tPA improved the chances of a successful result by thirty- one percent and produced no change in the death rate.

Scientists from Belgium and Germany worked with Maarten Lansberg of the Stanford University School of Medicine in California. One of the scientists worked for a company that makes tPA for use in Europe. America’s National Institutes of Health paid for the study.

VOICE TWO:

If you think someone is having a stroke, you should seek help immediately. The warning signs often appear suddenly. These include trouble walking, weakness especially on one side of the body, difficulty seeing and difficulty speaking.

Yet people who seem healthy can suffer a stroke without even knowing it. A study published last year involved about two thousand people with an average age of sixty- two. Brain imaging showed that nearly eleven percent of them had suffered what is known as a silent stroke.

The study found a link between silent strokes and a condition called atrial fibrillation. This is the most common cause of an unusual, or abnormal, heartbeat in older adults.