Heart Disease In The News

Rapid "clot busting" can prevent stroke damage
February 20, 2001

A new study presented at the American Stroke Association annual meetings documents that much of the brain damage caused by stroke can be prevented if "clot busting" drugs are administered rapidly into the affected brain artery.

In this study, 90 patients with acute stroke were given tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), a powerful clot busting drug, through a catheter inserted into the blocked brain artery.  The investigators found that tPA administered this way opened up the blocked arteries in many of these patients - and was especially effective in patients in whom atrial fibrillation was thought to be the cause of their strokes.  

While tPA given through the arteries was much more effective than in previous studies in which the drug was given intravenously, the risk of causing brain hemmorhage was also higher with the new method.

The investigtaors stressed that, unless the patients arrived in the emergency room within 3 hours of the onset of symptoms, the therapy was unlikely to work.

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