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Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences
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Total 132 results found since Jan 2013.
Timely treatment after stroke is crucial, UCLA researchers report
For years, the mantra of neurologists treating stroke victims has been "time equals brain." That's because getting a patient to the emergency room quickly to receive a drug that dissolves the stroke-causing blood clot can make a significant difference in how much brain tissue is saved or lost.
But specific information has been limited on just how the timing of giving the intravenous drug — known as a tissue plasminogen activator, or tPA — influences outcomes for victims of ischemic (clot-caused), stroke, the most common type of stroke.
Now, a team led by UCLA researchers has conducted a major stud...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - June 18, 2013 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
Hospitals in GWTG-Stroke program more likely to provide recommended stroke treatment
Timely stroke treatment is critical to ensuring good outcomes for patients. A new national study compared two programs designed to help hospitals adhere to nationally accepted standards and guideline recommendations for stroke treatment and found that hospitals participating in the Get With The Guidelines–Stroke program were more likely than Primary Stroke Center–certified hospitals to provide all the guideline-based measures of care for patients.
The study appears in the Oct. 14 issue of the Journal of the American Heart Association.
The American Heart Association/American Stroke Association's ...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - October 15, 2013 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
UCLA, USC get $2M to develop stroke center network in Southland
Stroke is the second leading cause of death in Los Angeles County and the fourth in the U.S. In order to cut those numbers, it's imperative that new treatments be developed and refined for stroke prevention, acute therapy and recovery after stroke.
Now, a three-way partnership between the UCLA Stroke Center at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, the USC Comprehensive Stroke and Cerebrovascular Center at Keck Medicine of USC, and UC Irvine has been awarded a $2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to address these three stroke priorities.
Together, the three universities will form the Los A...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - October 15, 2013 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
Stroke treatment, outcomes improve at hospitals participating in UCLA-led initiative
Administering a clot-dissolving drug to stroke victims quickly — ideally within the first 60 minutes after they arrive at a hospital emergency room — is crucial to saving their lives, preserving their brain function and reducing disability.
Given intravenously, tPA (tissue plasminogen activator) is currently the only Food and Drug Administration–approved therapy shown to improve outcomes for patients suffering acute ischemic stroke, which affects some 800,000 Americans annually.
Now, a UCLA-led study demonstrates that hospitals participating in the "Target: Stroke" national quality-improvement program have markedly...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - April 23, 2014 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
UCLA Comprehensive Stroke Center honored for stroke care
The UCLA Comprehensive Stroke Center at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center has received a Get With The Guidelines - Stroke award for implementing specific quality improvement measures outlined by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association for the treatment of stroke patients.
Get With The Guidelines - Stroke helps hospital teams provide the most up-to-date, research-based guidelines with the goal of speeding recovery and reducing death and disability for stroke patients. UCLA earned the Gold-Plus Quality Achievement Award award for measures that include aggressive use of medications and risk-reduction therap...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - October 31, 2014 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
UCLA Stroke Center awarded 'comprehensive stroke center' certification
The UCLA Stroke Center has been certified as a comprehensive stroke center by the Joint Commission and the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association. The center, part of UCLA Health and the UCLA Department of Neurology, is one of the first 12 stroke centers in the nation to receive the prestigious designation.
The certification, which confirms that the UCLA Stroke Center has met the highest national standards for safety and quality of care, further enhances the center's national reputation as an innovator in clinical care.
"This is a true team effort, reflecting the efforts of over 200 physicians...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - March 12, 2013 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
Paramedics may be best first line of defense in treating stroke patients
This study involved an unprecedented cooperative effort of paramedics in the field and emergency physicians serving as investigators,” said Dr. Sidney Starkman, co-principal investigator and co-director of the UCLA Stroke Center.
“Through this study we were able to instill permanently in everyone’s mind the idea that ‘time is brain.’ We believe this represents a paradigm shift in the treatment of stroke and potentially numerous other neurological conditions,” said Starkman, who also is professor of emergency medicine and neurology at the Geffen School. “We demonstrated that paramedics not only are eager to pr...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - February 5, 2015 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
Discovery could lead to better recovery after stroke
UCLA researchers have identified a molecule that, after a stroke, signals brain tissue to form new connections to compensate for the damage and initiate repairs to the brain.
The finding could eventually lead to a new treatment to promote brain repair and functional recovery in people who have suffered a stroke, which is the leading cause of serious long-term disability in adults.
The five-year study, performed in an animal model, was the first to identify growth differentiation factor 10, or GDF10, a molecule that previously had no known role in the adult brain, said Dr. S. Thomas Carmichael, the study’s senior author ...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - October 26, 2015 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
Quick magnesium treatment fails to improve stroke outcomes, but study has silver lining
In the first study of its kind, a consortium led by UCLA physicians found that giving stroke patients intravenous magnesium within an hour of the onset of symptoms does not improve stroke outcomes.
However, the 8-year trial did find that with the help of paramedics in the field, intravenous medications can frequently be administered to stroke victims within that so-called "golden hour," during which they have the best chance to survive and avoid debilitating, long-term neurological damage.
The latter finding is a "game-changer," said Dr. Jeffrey Saver, director of the UCLA Stroke Center and a professor of ...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - February 13, 2014 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
Clot removal device dramatically improves outcomes for people with acute ischemic stroke
A new device to remove obstructing blood clots can significantly improve outcomes for people who suffer a certain type of stroke, according to a study led by a UCLA investigator.
In patients with acute ischemic stroke — in which a clot blocks the blood supply to part of the brain — who received a clot-busting drug, removing the obstructing blood clot with a stent retriever device significantly reduced post-stroke disability and increased the percentage of patients who were independent in daily function after three months.
The findings represent the first new treatment for acute ischemic stroke in 20 years, since the de...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - April 17, 2015 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
Speedy treatment of stroke patients with new clot retrieval device vastly improves outcomes
In the treatment of stroke patients, time really is brain. A few minutes can mean the difference between patients living independently or suffering debilitating disabilities.
Now, UCLA researchers have shown, for the first time, that speedy treatment with a new-generation stent clot retrieval device results in greatly improved outcomes, and that even a five-minute delay negatively affects patients.
The one-year study found that when blood flow was restored to the brain within four hours of the start of a stroke, 80 percent of patients had a very good outcome — meaning that they survived and were able to live independent...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - August 17, 2015 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
UCLA Health launches pioneering mobile stroke unit with support from L.A. County
Roughly every 40 seconds, someone in the United States will have a stroke. Almost every four minutes, one of those people will die as a result. Against that backdrop, UCLA Health has officially launched the first mobile stroke unit on the West Coast, enabling rapid delivery of brain-saving medications to stroke patients who might otherwise face debilitating delays in treatment. As part of the first phase of a pilot program, the specialized ambulance unit and highly trained personnel began responding in September to select 911 calls in Santa Monica in coordination with the Santa Monica Fire Department. With support from t...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - October 26, 2017 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
UCLA, partners get $11M to develop stroke-prevention programs for minority populations
UCLA researchers and their partners across Los Angeles County have been awarded an $11 million federal grant to fund research on community-based interventions aimed at reducing the higher rates of stroke and death from stroke among disadvantaged Hispanics, African Americans and Asian Americans.
Research has shown that stroke risk can be substantially lowered by increasing physical activity, controlling blood pressure, adopting a healthy diet, quitting smoking, lowering cholesterol and, for certain individuals, taking medication like aspirin.
However, the underserved populations targeted by this research progr...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - May 1, 2013 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
Device used to close small hole in heart may protect against recurrent stroke
A device used to close a small hole in the heart may benefit certain stroke patients by providing an extra layer of protection for those facing years of ongoing stroke risk, according to the results of a large clinical trial led by UCLA researchers.“It is a major new treatment option for some people,” said Dr. Jeffrey Saver, director of theUCLA Comprehensive Stroke Center and lead author of the study. However, he added, “Using the device is going to have to be a considered clinical decision between the doctor and the patient about who’s the right person to get it.”Thefindings appear in the Sept. 14 New England Jo...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - September 14, 2017 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
A missing gene makes a big difference in patients ’ recovery from mild stroke
More than 6 million Americans live with disabilities following a stroke. Even mild strokes can leave survivors with arm and leg weakness, poor muscle control and memory lapses that worsen with age. Now UCLA neuroscientists have found that patients born without a gene called CCR5 recover better from mild stroke than patients with the gene. The team partnered with Israeli researchers to study the missing gene ’s effect on brain function.Published Feb. 21 in the journal Cell, the findings could lead to the first pill to reverse the physical and mental aftermath of mild stroke.“This is the first time that a human gene h...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - February 21, 2019 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
