New technologies can save more stroke patients – New Technology

       

Each year approximately 30 000 people in Sweden of stroke. It is also the third leading cause of death in the world.

The sooner a stroke patient receives treatment, the better the prospects.

– Today, it can take hours of patient had a stroke until it via x-ray to see if there is a blood clot or stroke. The more time that passes, the greater part of the brain is lost, said Fernando Seoane, associate professor of biomedical engineering at KTH, in a press release.

An international research project is therefore involved to try to get the equipment on an early stage, preferably already in the ambulance, determine if the patient has suffered a stroke.

– This would definitely remove stroke as one of the top three causes of death worldwide, says Fernando Seoane.

KTH doctoral student Sayed Reza Atefi has been in clinical tests commissioned sending a small current through the brain in several patients and measured the resistance. Then he has seen a stroke changes the electrical properties of the brain tissue.

It is now hoped that the method will also be used in a new instrument to determine the type of stroke, bleeding or clot, the patient suffered .

– It is absolutely essential to know in an emergency situation. Is there a haemorrhage can not deploy clot-dissolving medicine, will then take to the life of the patient, says Kaj Lindecrantz, Professor of Medical Technology at KTH.

So far the measurement results to be promising. The general tendency is that a bleeding create a smaller electrical resistance in the brain tissue, while a stopper gives a greater resistance. But Kaj Lindecrantz points out that more studies must be done to ensure the connection of different frequencies and different locations of brain damage.

The measuring method can also be valuable when it comes to monitoring patients who have suffered a minor stopper disappearance of itself. For such patients, it is likely that a larger clot occurs in the following week.

– Then you can quite easily put a pair of electrodes on the skull and monitor them around the clock, because it is especially important to monitor when they sleep, he says.

The plan is now to KTH researchers to proceed with tests on patients with acute stroke to verify the measurement method.

In addition KTH also includes Karolinska Hospital, Karolinska Institute, University of Borås, Harvard University and the General Hospital of Massachusetts in the project.

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