Thirty minutes later, she is speaking again. The crisis is over, and she is taken to Jackson's Stroke Unit to be monitored overnight. Within the past five years, new treatments have developed that must be done within three hours. One example is the intravenous clot-busting drug tPA, now considered standard treatment. Our protocol enables us to act fast.
Strokes occur when brain cells are deprived of blood.
Nearly 80 percent of strokes are caused by a blood clot that blocks an artery in the brain. Such clots tend to form in arteries that have become narrowed by atherosclerosis, the same process responsible for many heart attacks. In some patients, certain conditions can cause clots to form inside the heart's chambers. These clots can break free and travel in the bloodstream to the brain, where they may also get stuck in a blood vessel. A small percentage of strokes occur when a vessel in the brain bursts, spilling blood into the brain tissue.