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A "brain attack" calls for immediate action, according to the Brain Attack Coalition, a group of neurologists who lobby for quicker response to strokes.
Currently, most stroke patients never receive potentially lifesaving clot-busting drugs because they are not treated fast enough.
The powerful drugs, called thrombolytics, greatly reduce the risk of death or disability in people who suffer a stroke in which a clot blocks the flow of blood to the brain. To be effective, however, they must be given within the first three hours after the attack.
Neurologists say that hospitals with the proper equipment and expertise should be designated as "stroke centers" to help ensure that patients receive optimal treatment.
To qualify as a stroke center, the Coalition requires that a neurologist be on duty or on call at all times. In addition, a CAT scan must be immediately available to the ER--not in a distant hospital wing--so that all acute stroke patients are scanned within 25 minutes after they arrive, and the scan is interpreted by a neurologist within 45 minutes.
CAT scans are critical because physicians must determine whether the patient is having a stroke caused by a blood clot before administering thrombolytics. Nearly one in six strokes is due to bleeding in the brain. Clot-busting drugs would worsen the bleeding in someone with a hemorrhagic stroke.
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