On the road - with stroke treatment

It's known that the quicker the treatment, the better chances for better outcome for a stroke patient.

Now, one hospital is taking this one step further, taking stroke treatment on the road:

The unit -- a standard ambulance equipped with a CT scanner and stocked with clot-busting tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) -- overcomes the limitation of having to wait until a patient arrives at the hospital to confirm that the stroke is ischemic, which can drastically delay administration of the proven treatment.

The hope is that bringing the imaging and the tPA to the point of first medical contact out in the field will restore blood flow to the brain faster, save neurons, and ultimately improve patient outcomes, according to James Grotta, MD, director of stroke research for the Clinical Institute for Research & Innovation at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center.