The Role for Cardiologists in Stroke Intervention

Even though cardiovascular disease (CVD) is still the leading cause of death in the United States, stroke is the second leading of global cause of death behind CVD . In the 21st Century, less than 40% of overall stroke patients are discharged to home and almost 25% of Medicare beneficiaries do not survive 90days. In spite of the fact that tissue plasminogen activator (TPA) has been approved for stroke care for 20years, only .75% of annual strokes are actually treated with intravenous (IV) TPA. Similar to how interventional cardiologists evolved from IV to catheter mechanical treatment for acute myocardial infarctions (AMI) over 30years ago, over the last few years, neurointerventionists now perform endovascular stroke therapy in many of these patients using stent retrievers.
Source: Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases - Category: Cardiology Authors: Source Type: research