Stroke Awareness Foundation Blog

Stroke is a terrifying and all-too-common event that no one seems much concerned about until it happens.  The third leading cause of death after heart attack and all cancers combined, it is lethal in nearly 3 in 10 cases.  But for many more, stroke is a crippling disease.  It destroys brains and paralyzes bodies.  It robs people of the ability to walk, talk, feed themselves and conduct the activities of daily life.   

 The great majority of strokes – more than 8 in 10 are due to blocked or clogged blood vessels that starve brain tissue, which then deteriorates and dies.  Most patients with such strokes would benefit from the “clot-busting” medicine know as tissue plasminogen activator, tPA.  tPA is the only FDA approved clot-busing drug to treat strokes and has been around since 1996.  If given in a timely manner this drug can prevent or substantially reduce the wide variety of cognitive and physical deficits that stroke inflicts.  tPA is not for everyone and only about half the patients treated with tPA in several major studies made great recovery at 3 months; but that’s still much better than the alternative.

Today they are more than 820 primary stroke centers certified by The Joint Commission ( a private non-profit organization that provides certification programs for health care organization, including hospitals) in the U.S.  There is conclusive evidence that stroke victims – even those ineligible for acute intervention- who are managed in an organized stroke center have better outcomes and decreased mortality rates.    It is also clear that early access to rehabilitation specialists improves outcomes and decreases length of stay in the hospital.

The risk of recurring stroke is highest in the first year (15-25% depending on the cause) then it falls slowly to 5% over 5 years. If a person is taking their medications and taking care of all of their risk factors, the risk of recurring stroke is almost close to that of the general population.  After the age of 64 years, the risk is 2% in the general population.