This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on Web of Science (28)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Between the Promise and the Peril

Vladimir Hachinski, MD, DSc(Med)

JAMA. 1996;276(12):995-996.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

Thrombolysis in stroke represents a break, through clots and nihilism.¹ Although thrombolysis can only be recommended for a minority of patients and under the strictest circumstances, it demonstrates dramatically that stroke can be treated. While the Australian Streptokinase (ASK) Trial² reported in this issue of THE JOURNAL was stopped early, it adds to the growing evidence that prompt intervention makes a difference in stroke. Unlike a cardiac arrest, in which brain viability is counted in minutes, early ischemic stroke harbors a dynamic mixture of salvageable tissue offering therapeutic windows lasting for hours.³ The earlier the intervention, the better the prognosis; time is brain.⁴ Similarly, the sooner thrombolytics are given, the better the chance for arterial recanalization and the lower the risk of complications.⁵ This was a prior hypothesis and a finding of the ASK Trial, which suggested a beneficial effect in patients treated with streptokinase within . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
From the Department of Clinical Neurological Sciences, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario.

Footnotes
Reprints: Vladimir Hachinski, MD, DSc(Med), Department of Clinical Neurological Sciences, University of Western Ontario, 339 Windermere Rd, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 5A5.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?