Stroke: historical perspectives.
The author gives a historical account of stroke, the devastating statistics that still plague Americans, what the future holds, the current research, and possible areas for improvement and growth. Now with specialized imaging, diffusion-weighted and perfusion-weighted magnetic resonance imagings may become the technique to rapidly diagnose brain attack. The cutting edge technology now involves balloons, coils, stents, angioplasty, and thrombolytics to save an ischemic penumbra. Of course, the overall goals remain early detection, intervention, and treatment, which today are individualized to each patient; community education of brain attack and what it looks like; and that time is brain survival. Therefore, a brain attack is a true 911 emergency.
Gerber
Carolyn S
CS
Surgical Intensive Care Unit, Interventional Radiology Department, Scripps Mercy Hospital, San Diego, Calif, USA. cgrnsdca@pacbell.net
D002545:Brain Ischemia / Q000266:history; D002533:Cerebral Angiography / Q000266:history; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D018810:Magnetic Resonance Angiography / Q000266:history; D020521:Stroke / Q000266:history* / Q000451:nursing; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000266:history