1. Dr. Lee Corwin, a neurologist at Jordan Hospital in Plymouth, Mass., said patients with stroke symptoms must not waste time calling their family doctors first. 2. Fewer than half of such elders could identify a single stroke symptom. 3. Forty-four percent of non-Hispanic whites were able to get to the hospital within three hours of their stroke symptoms, he said. 4. In a study he co-authored recently, only one-third of metro Atlanta residents could identify even one stroke symptom. 5. Studies in this country and Europe have shown that TPA itself can precipitate a brain hemorrhage if given more than three hours after the onset of stroke symptoms. 6. The National Stroke Foundation is starting a campaign aimed at women, who are less aware of stroke symptoms than men. 7. The panel also said that it is important to educate the general public about stroke symptoms. 8. Treatment with tissue plasminogen activator, or TPA, must start within three hours of the onset of stroke symptoms, Morgenstern said. 9. A chipper Sam Snead was released from the hospital Wednesday, weakened by stroke symptoms that turned out to be mere fatigue. 10. Regardless, he stressed that people with stroke symptoms must seek care fast -- and doctors should always to check for a stroke -- because there are treatments. |