Identifying the type of stroke a patient has suffered is crucial to timely treatment and survival A new blood test might help spot a particularly deadly form of stroke called an LVO The test might be used in ambulances as patients are rushed to ERs, the researchers said MONDAY, May 20, 2024 -- When a stroke hits, "time is brain," doctors say, with neurons beginning to die off in minutes. Quickly figuring out which type of a patient has been hit with is crucial. Now, an experimental blood test might speed that process along.
A team from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston report their test can determine with high accuracy whether or not a patient has suffered a highly lethal type of stroke called large vessel occlusion (LVO). Once that determination is made, the test gives doctors the green light to use a surgical technique called mechanical thrombectomy to quickly retrieve the LVO clot from any large artery feeding the brain. “Mechanical thrombectomy has allowed people that otherwise would have died or become significantly disabled be completely restored, as if their stroke never happened,” senior study author explained in a hospital news release.
“The earlier this intervention is enacted, the better the patient’s outcome is going to be," added Bernstock, a clinical fellow in the hospital's department of neurosurgery. "This exciting new technology has the potential to allow more people globally to get this treatment faster.” Bernstock's team already knew that d.
