Not many aware of brain stroke, says AIIMS

New Delhi: A person suffers from a brain stroke every three seconds in India and a death is reported every three minutes, according to estimates of Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR). 

Citing these alarming statistics, Dr M.V.Padma Srivastava from the n eurology department, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) underlined the need for timely treatment and stroke units in every district hospital in the country.

At a lecture on World Stroke Day, Dr Kameshwar Prasad, the HoD, neurology, AIIMS, said there is very little awareness in the country about brain strokes.

According to a study conducted by premier hospital a total of 5,640 persons in Vasant Kunj of less than 50 years of age have been enrolled and found 4,266 had gone through various medical assessments at AIIMS and 1,082 have undergone MRI brain scans. 

“This study will enhance our understanding of brain stroke and dementia and also pave the way towards ‘precision medicine’, said Dr Prasad in a statement. 

The AIIMS alone receives about 450 patients every year and although lakhs of people in the country suffer from brain strokes, not more than a thousand undergo thrombolysis every year, Dr Prasad said. 

Thrombolysis is a process under which brain stroke patients takes a CT scan and is administered tissue plasminogen activator (TPA) to bust arterial blood clots.

The brain stroke patients need to be taken to the hospital in the first hour of getting a stroke. There is a four-and-a-half hour window for the actual treatment to begin. The doctors said that a patient needs to be taken to the hospital immediately and not to a clinic or a dispensary.

“When medical treatment is delayed, millions of neurons are damaged and higher functions of the brain are affected,” Dr Srivastava said. He also said that brain stroke was the most common cause of death, second only to cancer.