Long before a woman hits middle age, she and her doctor should be thinking about her risk of stroke and taking steps to reduce it, according to the first set of stroke guidelines aimed at women. The overall stroke risk for women is higher than it is for men, in part because women live longer. But the new guidelines from the American Heart Assn. underscore that many other factors may increase their risk as well, and many of them are evident when a woman is in her 20s and 30s. Some, like complications of pregnancy and menopause, are unique to women. Other risk factors including obesity, migraine with aura, atrial fibrillation and depression are more common in women than in men. Even risk factors that affect men and women equally, such as high blood pressure, smoking, diabetes and worrisome cholesterol readings, sometimes require different treatment in women. Current measures of a woman's stroke risk do not even consider her vulnerability before the age of 54, said Dr. Cheryl Bushnell, a neurologist at Wake Forest Baptist Health in Winston-Salem, N.C., and the lead author of the guidelines released Thursday. But since some risk factors occur when women are of childbearing age, … Continue reading →

WASHINGTON -- A woman is more likely to die from a stroke than a man, yet prevention and treatment guidelines have always been targeted towards male patients, until now. The American Heart Association/American Stroke Association has just released the first set of stroke prevention guidelines specifically for women. "Stroke affects women in ways that are different from men," says Dr. Alex Dromerick, a professor of neurology at the Georgetown University School of Medicine. Hormones, birth control, pregnancy and other sex-related factors can influence a woman's risk of stroke. But with monitoring and treatment, that risk can be lowered. The recommendations -- published in the American Heart Association journal "Stroke" -- take aim at one of the main causes of cardiovascular problems: hypertension. Women who plan to take birth control pills should be tested for high blood pressure first, and that goes double if they smoke or get severe migraines. The guidelines also stress the importance of keeping blood pressure in check during pregnancy. Dromerick, who is also vice president for research at MedStar National Rehabilitation Network, says good prenatal care is essential. "One of the complications that can be associated with childbirth is called preeclampsia -- that is high blood … Continue reading →

The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) Medical School, in partnership with Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center, today unveiled the countrys first mobile stroke unit. Staffed by a stroke team and equipped with a CT scanner, this specialized ambulance will run in conjunction with Emergency Medical Services of Bellaire, West University Place and Houston fire departments and is part of a three-year clinical trial to test whether it improves outcomes for stroke patients by speeding delivery of treatment with the clot-buster tPA (tissue plasminogen activator). It typically takes roughly an hour once a stroke patient arrives in the emergency room to receive treatment. So if we can actually put the emergency room in the ambulance and take the CT scanner to the patient, we could treat the patient at the scene with the medication and save that hour, said Dr. James C. Grotta, director of stroke research in the Center for Innovation & Research at Memorial Hermann-TMC and director of the mobile stroke unit consortium made up of stroke teams from Houston Methodist Hospital and St. Lukes Medical Center, local businesses and philanthropists. That hour could mean saving 120 million brain cells. Stroke occurs when blood flow to … Continue reading →