Stroke Study Group in this week's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine . Since stroke is the leading cause of adult disability in the United States, any means to reduce its disabling effects translates into enormous cost-savings and improvements in quality of life. The study population was comprised of 624 ischemic stroke patients randomly assigned to receive either t-PA or placebo intravenously in the emergency department within three hours of stroke symptom onset. Ischemic stroke, which comprises 85 percent of strokes, occurs when a blood vessel in the brain becomes blocked by atherosclerosis or a clot.
Hemorrhagic stroke is caused by a ruptured blood vessel in the brain.
One in five Georgians who died from stroke in 1997 was younger than 65 years of age. All Rights Reserved.