Expanding the Time Window to 16 Hours: New Hope for Stroke Victims

[berkeman]

This looks very promising. It doesn't work for all stroke patients, but so far about half of the patients who went through the imaging procedure did have brain tissue conditions that indicated they would still benefit from removing the clot causing the ischemic stroke. That extended time window can be huge for some stroke victims...

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/24/health/stroke-clots-brain.html

The study showed that the time window could be expanded to 16 hours. However, the findings do not apply to every stroke victim. The researchers used a special type of brain imaging to identify the patients who still had live brain tissue that could be saved if the blood supply was restored. Only about half the patients who were screened qualified for treatment, known as thrombectomy, which uses a mechanical device to pull clots out of a blood vessel.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

This is incredibly promising news. It is great to hear that the time window for successful treatment can be extended and that a special type of imaging can help identify those who would benefit from thrombectomy. This could make a huge difference for many stroke victims.