The Food and Drug Administration approved t-PA for stroke last June. When blood flow is cut off to parts of the brain, the brain is deprived of oxygen and other nutrients it needs to function properly. If blood flow is not restored, those parts of the brain begin to die, causing a variety of disabilities such as paralysis or loss of speech.
Stroke is the leading cause of adult disability.
Each year in the United States, about 400,000 brain attacks are due to blood clots and 100,000 strokes are caused by bleeding into the brain. Now, after a five-year study of 600 patients nationwide, the drug is also available for people who have ischemic brain attacks as well. Those treated with the drug under very specific conditions were at least 30 percent more likely than untreated patients to survive their brain attack with little or no disability. The researchers stressed that several important steps are essential to optimize recovery using t-PA, which is not without serious risks, including bleeding in the brain. To be most effective, this treatment and others in the pipeline require rapid identification of stroke symptoms and immediate action by patients and emergency care specialists.