Early magnetic resonance imaging will help save stroke patients

Magnetic resonance imaging will quickly help patients who are treated for ischemic stroke, which may be due to the appearance of blood clots right in the brain artery.

Images taken with rapid magnetic resonance can tell when strokes occur in stroke patients, allowing doctors to treat more aggressively to limit brain damage, French researchers have posted. Download this information in Radiology magazine published on October 2, 2010.

Patients with stroke due to stroke

When a stroke patient arrives at the hospital, the patient's life is being calculated every minute because when a blood clot interferes with blood circulating in a brain artery, millions of nerve cells are lost every minute. passed after that due to lack of blood and oxygen. A drug called ischemic stroke called TPA , or Tissue plasminogen activator, can often dissolve blood clots and clear blood vessels. But the drug is usually considered safe for patients to use within 3 to 4.5 hours after the stroke begins.

Although stroke patients were often advised to do a CT scan, which allowed doctors to distinguish strokes that were caused by a blood clot or from a cerebral hemorrhage, although this was rare, in which the cause of stroke was determined by a dark mass on this CT image, according to neurologist Andrew Barreto, who works at The University of Texas Medical School, Houston, USA. MRI, or magnetic resonance imaging, is used less frequently and usually only in large medical centers.

Unfortunately, CT scans cannot determine when a stroke has begun. There are not many patients, either because they cannot remember exactly when the first symptoms appeared or because they woke up in the pain of a stroke. In this case, the doctor "estimates" the timing of the stroke, Barreto said, that the doctors would be hesitant if the patient was given an ischemic stroke after the patient had For a long time, TPA is considered too late, because it will not help the dead tissue to revive and the risk of brain bleeding. After TPA was not effective, the doctors also gave up their hands and watched the patient die.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provides a more accurate look into the brains of stroke patients compared to CT scans . In the new study, doctors Catherine Oppenheim and Mina Petkova of Paris Descartes University, France. MRIs examined 130 65-year-old patients, who were admitted to the Sainte-Anne hospital in Paris from May 2006 to 2008, based on strokes due to the appearance of blood clots right in the arteries. The brain, which was documented by documentation of the onset. About 65 people who underwent magnetic resonance imaging within three hours began onset of stroke, while others were taken 3 to 12 hours after stroke symptoms began.

Doctors have examined magnetic resonance images without knowing before the onset of stroke patients. They applied three standard tests with what they observed, all of which measured the extent to which dead tissue in the brain was caused by a blood clot in the brain artery. A measurement, a fluid called inversion weakened, clearly distinguishes between MRIs taken in the first three hours and those who perform later. That is accurate in about 90% of cases, while other tests are less accurate. " MRI can be used to look for representative signs of the timing of stroke onset when the initial time of stroke is unknown ," said Oppenheim and colleagues.

" These data look provocative, " Barreto said. " If a CT scan can't help the doctor see very small, subtle changes in cerebral circulation blood flow, the doctor won't have to do anything to the patient. That's why taking pictures plus word enjoyment is the number one priority. "Resonance imaging from the best job. In this study may reveal whether it is advisable to provide TPA to patients in 6 hours or more after onset, especially in those who wake up with a stroke, he said. Although a magnetic resonance imaging scan (MRI) can take 30 to 45 minutes to complete, Baretto said the delay could be worthwhile if it helps patients survive the use of TPA. well-timed. " That's not perfect ," he said, " but it's really better than other tests. "