When a person suffers a stroke, the chances of them returning to a normal life could depend on how quickly they receive drugs that restore proper blood flow in the affected part of the brain. Now, a new study shows it is feasible for paramedics to deliver these drugs before the patient reaches the hospital.

Among the many urgent things paramedics have to deal with when attending a seriously ill casualty are two pressing priorities:
•Trying to work out what is wrong with the patient
•Getting them to hospital as quickly as possible.

And like many other conditions, it is also very important to get the diagnosis of stroke right – not only to decide whether it is indeed a stroke that has struck the casualty, but also what kind of stroke.

There are two kinds of stroke – one caused by bleeding in or around the brain (hemorrhagic stroke), and the other caused by a blocked blood vessel in the brain (ischemic stroke).

Stroke patients have to wait until they are at the hospital to get treatment

Currently, ischemic stroke patients have to wait until they get to the hospital before they can receive clot-busting drugs. But now a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine concludes it is feasible for paramedics to deliver the drugs on the way to the hospital.

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), whose acting director Dr. Walter Koroshetz says:

“Because a blocked blood vessel causes brain damage over minutes to hours this pre-hospital approach to treatment is sure to be adopted and refined in future clinical research studies. Ultra-early brain salvage in stroke patients will someday surely reduce the tremendous burden of disability and death due to stroke.”

In most stroke trials, the effectiveness of treatment is tested by giving patients drugs once they get to the hospital, after they have undergone diagnostic tests. But this could be hours after the stroke event itself.

For the new study, Dr. Jeffrey Saver, director of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Comprehensive Stroke Center, and colleagues developed a new way of conducting a stroke clinical trial.

They asked themselves: is it possible to reduce the time between stroke event and treatment by having paramedics give the patient the correct drug once stroke is suspected – before the patient reaches the hospital? Read more in Medicalnewstoday.