A radical approach to stroke therapy

摘要

Stroke is a major cause of death and disability throughout the developed world. Cerebrovascular disease ranks third after cancer and heart disease as a cause of death in the European Union and the U.S. The economic and social burdens of stroke are not consequences of mortality; they are imposed by the large majority of stroke patients who survive but are physically and mentally disabled by stroke-induced brain dam- age. In the U.S., less than 2/100 of stroke patients benefit from access to early thrombolysis, which removes the primary cause of blood flow reduction.