STROKE victims given a clot-busting drug after an attack recover better than those who do not receive the treatment, according to the world's biggest trial of the medicine.
More than 3000 patients worldwide took part in the trial of rt-PA, given intravenously to patients who have had an acute ischaemic stroke, which occurs when an artery that carries blood to the brain is blocked.
The damage can be permanent or fatal, with problems including paralysis down one side of the body and speech problems.
The international trial, led by the University of Edinburgh, found that following treatment with the drug, more stroke survivors were able to look after themselves.
A patient's chances of completely recovering within six months of a stroke were also increased.
For every 1000 patients given rt-PA within three hours of stroke, 80 more will survive and live without help from others than if they had not been given the drug, according to the research.
But patients are also at risk of death within seven days of treatment as the drug can cause a secondary bleed in the brain.
Without rt-PA treatment one-third of people who have a stroke die and another third are left permanently dependent and disabled.
For those who do not experience bleeding, the drug improves patients' longer-term recovery.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article