New York Times reporter Andrew Revkin recently wrote an article that did a great job of describing a stroke from a patient’s perspective, as well as discussing some new advances in stroke treatment technology. The first point his case illustrates is that stroke can occur at all ages, from babies to the elderly. It may be especially difficult for younger and fit patients to understand they are having a stroke. Since it’s an “an old … Read More
With stroke, time is brain. When people suffer strokes, they need certain medical treatments within a limited amount of time, or their brains can be so damaged that they will have permanent disabilities. That’s why the OHSU Telemedicine Network is so vital in stroke treatment for hundreds of thousands of rural Oregonians. The network allows experts with the Oregon Stroke Center at the OHSU Brain Institute to use a two-way audio-video robot to collaborate with … Read More
This week the Oregon Stroke Center at the OHSU Brain Institute was very pleased to receive the following notification from our hospital accreditation organization: “Effective Immediately The Joint Commission has officially certified OHSU as a Comprehensive Stroke Program!” OHSU is the first hospital in the Pacific Northwest and one of only 27 hospitals in the U.S. to receive this certification. Well, this all does sound exciting — but what does it mean for a patient … Read More
Every February, healthcare providers and researchers from all over the world meet for the American Stroke Association’s annual International Stroke Conference. This year the conference was hosted in Honolulu, Hawaii and I was honored to attend and present three of my own papers on stroke. The conference was huge. There were so many interesting topics covered simultaneously that I ended up having to read about some of them afterwards. But there were a few things … Read More
Before I became a physician, I used to think that heart attacks and strokes were problems for men, and that the only thing women had to worry about was breast cancer. Then, during my training, I learned that a significant number of women would come to the hospital with strokes, and overall they tend not to recover as well. Looking at the literature, of the 700,000 strokes that occur per year in the United States, … Read More
What is cholesterol and why do we care? Understanding cholesterol can be tricky. It took me a few years to convince my parents that only foods that contain animal products contain cholesterol. However, fatty foods that are cholesterol free can still raise your body’s cholesterol. So is all cholesterol bad? No, too much cholesterol is bad. And everyone regulates cholesterol differently. Cholesterol is a waxy fat-like substance that our bodies need to survive. Animals, including … Read More
What is a stroke, and what are its warning signs? This isn’t common knowledge to many people. It should be. A stroke is basically injury to the brain or spinal cord (yes, spinal cords can stroke) caused by lack of blood to that tissue. Strokes can be due to blockage of blood vessels feeding the brain, or from the rupture of blood vessels causing bleeding in the brain. They often occur suddenly without much warning. … Read More
