Minute Delay in Stroke Treatment Could Mean Disability for LIfe

Delaying stroke treatment- even by a second- can mean life or death. New research reveals that every 15-minute delay in treatment robs survivors of a month of disability-free life.

In contrast, speeding treatment by just one minute leads to another 1.8 days of healthy life, according to researchers at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

"'Save a minute; save a day' is the message from our study, which examined how even small reductions in treatment delays might benefit patients measurably in the long run," lead author Atte Meretoja, M.D., Ph.D., M.Sc., associate professor of neurology at the University of Melbourne in Australia, said in a news release.

Researchers said that doctors treat stroke patients by administering a clot-busting drug. Previous studies reveal that the clot-busting drug tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) treats ischemic stroke. It is extremely important that the drug be administered within 4.5 hours of symptom onset. However, the sooner the patient receives the drugs, the better their outcome.

"Clot-busting treatment works equally well, irrespective of race, ethnicity or gender," Meretoja said. "Speedy restoration of blood flow to the brain is crucial for brain cell survival everywhere."

Recent statistics reveals that Helsinki, Finland and Melbourne, Australia have the world's fastest stroke services, with both taking an average of 20 minutes from hospital arrival to start of treatment. However, most American, Australian and European hospitals take 70 to 80 minutes.

 "In this study, we wanted to quantify the importance of speed in the hope that concrete easy-to-relate-to figures will inspire medical services to measure and improve their game for the benefit of our stroke patients," Meretoja said.

The latest study involved 2,258 consecutive stroke patients from Australia and Finland. Researchers calculated patient outcomes in terms of fast and slow treatment.

The findings revealed that patients gained an average of 1.8 days of extra health life for every minute the treatment could be delivered faster. While all patients gained from faster treatment, the study revealed that younger patients with longer life expectancies gained more benefits from prompt treatment than older patients.

"In stroke treatment, every minute saved gives patients days of healthy life," Meretoja said. "Patients should never wait a single minute for stroke signs, such as face droop, arm weakness or speech disturbance, to go away. They should call for help immediately. Additionally, most emergency medical services and hospitals have the ability to reduce response and treatment delays significantly, and we have described how to do this."

The findings are published in the American Heart Association journal Stroke.