New Guidelines Could Lessen Number of Stroke Victims

Ivanhoe Newswire
Monday, January 22, 2007; 12:00 AM

By Rebekah Addy, Ivanhoe Health Correspondent

ORLANDO, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- About 700,000 people in the United States suffer a stroke each year and more than 158,000 of them will die, according to the American Cancer Society. This makes stroke the third-leading cause of death behind heart disease and cancer. However, new guidelines could help lesson that number.

A multidisciplinary committee of neurologists and surgeons created new screening guidelines intended to reduce the number of deaths and disability rates associated with strokes.

"The guidelines will help to reduce the incidence of stroke through early detection in up to one-fifth of the high risk patients who undergo screening procedures as outlined," Adnan I. Qureshi, M.D., from the Zeenat Qureshi Stroke Research Center at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, told Ivanhoe.

Dr. Qureshi and his team are working on how to best get the guidelines to the public. Although they are for both patients and doctors, he envisions educating doctors first on how to identify their high-risk patients and then the doctors educating their patients.

Tips To Avoid Stroke:

• Watch your blood pressure -- make sure it's not too high
• Cholesterol -- monitor it and make sure it's not high
• Smoking -- it increases your odds

Be Aware:

Awareness of the warning signs is key, and many people fail to recognize when they are having a stroke. So what things should you be aware of? The American Heart Association gives some warning signs:

• Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm or leg, especially on one side of the body
• Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding
• Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes
• Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination
• Sudden, severe headache with no known cause

This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, which offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, click on: http://ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.

SOURCE: Ivanhoe interview with Adnan I. Qureshi, M.D.; Journal of Neuroimaging, 2007;17:19-47