Reduce disability risks - get help immediately for stroke patients

Among adults in the United States, stroke is the leading cause of permanent disability. And too many times, those disabilities came about because of delay in treatment.

Even more research makes it even clearer - know the stroke signs and get help. Immediately. Share this information with family, friends, loved ones, colleagues, acquaintances - anyone and everyone.

British researchers found (again!) that speedy delivery of a clot-busting drug helps stroke patients avoid disability:

Prompt treatment with tissue plasminogen activator (tPA, also known as alteplase) "is a very effective means of limiting the degree of disability in stroke patients," study co-author Dr. Jonathan Emberson, of University of Oxford in the U.K., said in a news release from the journal The Lancet.

The study, published in the journal on Aug. 5, also reinforces the idea that the quicker that patients can get tPA, the better.

One U.S. expert agreed. "The analysis reiterates the importance of patients going to the ER immediately at the time of developing acute neurological symptoms that could be due to a stroke," said Dr. Rafael Alexander Ortiz, director of interventional neuroradiology and stroke at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.