-----Original Message-----
From: NIH news releases and news items [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of NIH OLIB (NIH/OD)
Sent: August 25, 2011 16:22
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: BRAIN ATTACK COALITION UPDATES RECOMMENDATIONS FOR PRIMARY STROKE
CENTERS

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH NIH News 
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
<http://www.ninds.nih.gov/>
Embargoed for Release: Thursday, August 25, 2011, 4 p.m. EDT

CONTACT: Marian Emr/ Margo Warren, NINDS, (301) 496-5751,
<e-mail:[log in to unmask]>

BRAIN ATTACK COALITION UPDATES RECOMMENDATIONS FOR PRIMARY STROKE CENTERS
Revisions reflect advances in diagnosis, treatment and technology
 
Stroke patients who need emergency care should be taken to the nearest
certified primary stroke center, which acts as a central point for stroke
treatment, according to recommendations from the Brain Attack Coalition
(BAC), a group representing medical, scientific, nonprofit and government
leaders in the field of stroke. The recommendations, which reflect advances
in stroke treatment over the past decade, are published online in the
September issue of the journal Stroke.

The recommendations also include the option of using magnetic resonance
imaging (MRI) of the brain in lieu of computer tomography (CT) if it can be
performed within 25 minutes of being ordered, the current time standard for
CT.  The authors also recommend heart imaging, since strokes are often
caused by blood clots from the heart, and two new techniques for imaging the
blood vessels in and around the brain that may cause a stroke.

At least 1,000 U.S. hospitals are designated as primary stroke centers, or
PSCs, a trend that has improved the care and treatment of acute stroke
patients across the United States.  The concept of PSCs arose from a need to
provide rapid, uniform, evidence-based treatment to all stroke patients.
This concept was further supported following Food and Drug Administration
approval in 1995 of the first treatment for acute stroke, the clot-busting
drug t-PA.

Stroke is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States and the
leading cause of serious long term disability in adults.  There are more
than 795,000 new or recurring strokes each year, at a cost exceeding $73
billion.  

"As PSCs have grown, we have seen a number of benefits for stroke patients.
More are getting rapid diagnoses and appropriate treatments as quickly as
possible.  Stroke care is better organized, and quality of care has improved
substantially.  These benefits are very much in keeping with the Brain
Attack Coalition's mission of preventing and combating stroke," said Walter
Koroshetz, M.D., deputy director of the National Institutes of Health's
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), a member of
the BAC.

The new BAC recommendations recognize substantial changes in the diagnosis
and treatment of stroke patients over the past decade particularly advances
in brain and imaging techniques, the development of stroke teams and stroke
units, and evidence supporting the importance of early initiation of
rehabilitation therapy.  

"Many hospitals have benefited and will continue to benefit from
certification as primary stroke centers.  Even more importantly, the
patients cared for at PSCs have clearly benefited by getting better
treatment, experiencing fewer complications, and going home from the
hospital sooner.  As a coalition of stroke professionals, we feel an
imperative to help improve and further develop this important link in the
chain of stroke recovery," said Mark J. Alberts, M.D., director of the
Stroke Center at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in
Chicago and lead author of the paper.

The authors built the new clinical recommendations from an extensive
literature search.  A fact sheet summarizing the recommendations is
available.

Since its creation in 1994, the BAC has led several important collaborative
initiatives including publication of a paper on the establishment of
comprehensive stroke centers, designed to offer a higher level of stroke
care; agreement on a uniform presentation of stroke symptom messaging; and
the development of a new public education message to get more patients to
seek immediate treatment.

The initial BAC recommendations for establishing PSCs were published in the
Journal of the American Medical Association in March 2000. These prompted
the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association to partner with
the Joint Commission, an independent body that accredits health care centers
and hospitals, to develop a system to recognize and certify certain
hospitals as PSCs.  The Joint Commission has now certified more than 800
PSCs. The federally authorized Healthcare Facilities Accreditation Program
and various state agencies have certified several hundred more PSCs.   

Members of the Brain Attack Coalition are:  the American Academy of
Neurology; American Association of Neurological Surgeons; American
Association of Neuroscience Nurses;  American College of Emergency
Physicians; American Heart Association/American Stroke Association; American
Society of Neuroradiology; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention;
Congress of Neurological Surgeons;  Department of Veterans Affairs; National
Association of Chronic Disease Directors;  National Association of EMS
Physicians; National Association of State EMS Officials; National Institute
of Neurological Disorders and Stroke; National Stroke Association;
Neurocritical Care Society; Society of NeuroInterventional Surgery; and the
Stroke Belt Consortium. 

NINDS <www.ninds.nih.gov> is the nation's leading funder of research on the
brain and nervous system.  The NINDS mission is to reduce the burden of
neurological disease -- a burden borne by every age group, by every segment
of society, by people all over the world.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical
research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of
the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal
agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical
research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both
common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs,
visit <www.nih.gov>.
-------------------------
REFERENCE: Alberts MJ, Latchaw RE, Jagoda A, Wechsler L, Crocco T, George
MG, Connolly ES, Mancini B, Prudhomme S, Gress D, Jensen ME, Bass R, Ruff R,
Foell K, Armonda RA, Emr M, Warren M, Baranski J, Walker MD. "Revised and
Updated Recommendations for the Establishment of Primary Stroke Centers: A
Summary Statement from the Brain Attack Coalition." Stroke, September, 2011,
Volume 42, Pages 2651-2665.
  
##

This NIH News Release is available online at:
<http://www.nih.gov/news/health/aug2011/ninds-25.htm>.

To subscribe (or unsubscribe) from NIH News Release mailings, go to
<http://service.govdelivery.com/service/subscribe.html?code=USNIH_1>.
If you subscribed via the NIH Listserv, go to
<https://list.nih.gov/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A0=nihpress>.

-----------------------

To change your mail settings or leave the C-PALSY list, go here:

http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?SUBED1=c-palsy