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Article: Study: ER doctors can give stroke clot-busters safely, but patients need to get to ER faster.(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Pain & Central Nervous System Week
- Article date:
- June 10, 2002
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2002 JUN 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Emergency room physicians can deliver clot-busting drugs to appropriate stroke patients as quickly and safely as dedicated stroke teams, if they follow guidelines set by national organizations, a new study finds.
That means the closest ER may be the best one when a stroke strikes - but only if the ER team is prepared to give thrombolytic drugs called tissue plasminogen activators, or tPA, that can break up a clot and cut the risk of brain damage.
The study also shows too many minutes are lost between the time a stroke hits and the time a stroke victim reaches the ER. That delay reduces the number of patients ...