Word: clots
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...year, Lee was suffering a stroke. Something had cut off the flow of oxygen and nutrient-rich blood to a portion of her brain. Sometimes the culprit is a leaky artery. But in Phillips' case, as in 80% of strokes, the problem, revealed by a CAT scan, was a clot that was plugging up one of the blood vessels in her head. Unless the clot was dislodged, part of her brain would die, leaving her at least partly paralyzed...
Because Phillips arrived at the emergency room so soon after her stroke began, the doctors offered her an experimental treatment. They injected her with a drug called TPA, which dissolved the clot and quickly re-established normal blood flow to her brain. Phillips recovered so completely, in fact, that it seemed as if the stroke had never happened. She left the hospital after four days, her speech normal and any trace of paralysis gone...
...this point that TPA has proved so effective. If given within three hours of the stroke's onset, the clot buster can interrupt the brain's panicked reaction. Damage may be kept so limited that it is imperceptible. Ideally, doctors would like to inject the drug within 90 minutes of the initial attack, underscoring once again the need for stroke suspects to get to an emergency room quickly...
Even stroke victims who, for one reason or another, cannot be given TPA can increase their chances of survival and recovery by getting to an emergency room swiftly. Doctors can still give them blood thinners that may dislodge a stroke-causing clot. The outcome of some bleeding strokes can also be markedly improved by surgical repair of the blood vessel that is leaking into the brain...
...guidelines make clear, the key to successful treatment is two-fold. Doctors must first determine, by performing a cat scan, that the stroke is indeed being caused by a clot and not by a leaky artery. (In such cases, called hemorrhagic stroke, clotting is actually beneficial because it stops the loss of blood.) Then the physicians must ensure that less than three hours have elapsed since the stroke's onset. Otherwise the risk of bleeding into the brain is too great...