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Press
coverage on t-PA story 1:
Quick actions minimize stroke’s effects
Press
coverage on t-PA story 2: Until recently doctors had
no effective way to treat stroke, the nation’s third leading
cause of death. Instead, they simply focused on keeping patients
alive and helping them cope with the disability.
That approach is being
supplanted today, thanks mainly to a drug that can save lives and
prevent long term damage from most strokes--if people get treated
quickly. "We now call stroke a 'brain attack,' hoping that
people will react to its symptoms with the same urgency that they
do to chest pain," says Dr. Gerald Fischbach, director of
the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
"Unfortunately, most people don't, and many suffer or die as
a result."
Recent research indicates that some 730,000 people
suffer a stroke each year roughly one third more than the best
previous estimates. A stroke may not wait until you're old:
Nearly one third of all overt strokes occur in people under 65.
And probably starting as early as middle age, many people
experience "silent" strokes small, unnoticed events
that can eventually damage the brain and contribute to cognitive
decline and dementia.
The big shift in stroke treatment started in 1996, when
the Food and Drug Administration approved a clot busting drug
called “ tissue Plasminogen Activator”, or t-PA for the emergency treatment of ischemic stroke. (That
type, caused by blood clots, accounts for 80 to 85 percent of all
strokes.) The drug substantially improves the chance of complete
recovery but only if it's given within three hours of the attack.
At some hospitals, doctors can now deliver t-PA directly
to the clot by threading a tiny catheter into the brain. And
researchers are experimenting with a metal probe at the tip of
the catheter, which helps break up the clot. Other researchers are
developing new drugs that either dissolve clots more effectively
or keep brain cells alive until blood flow resumes.
While those treatments are not widely available, most
hospitals now treat stroke victims as urgently as heart attack
victims. Dr. Joseph Broderick, director of the Greater Cincinnati Northern Kentucky Stroke Team, says, "We now have a new
slogan: 'Time is brain."'
This report were adapted from articles in monthly
newsletter of Consumer Reports on Health. To subscribe, call 800
234 2188. CONSUMER REPORTS JULY 1999
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(Heart attacks)