World Stroke Day

Padma Shri and Dr B C Roy National Awardee
President, Heart Care Foundation of India

On the occasion of World Stroke Day, Padma Shri and Dr B C Roy National Awardee, Dr K K Aggarwal and Dr Vipul Gupta, Senior Interventional Neuroradiologist at Medanta – The Medicity said that both heart attack and brain attack should be tackled in the same way. Both conditions share the same predisposing factors and in both cases early diagnosis and clot removal is life-saving.

In both cases the patient should be rushed to the nearest hospital as early as possible but definitely within 6 hours and the treatment in both the conditions is either clot dissolving therapy or removal of the clot by invasive cath procedure. In both cases preferably the patient should be shifted to the nearest hospital where cath lab facilities are available. 

They said one should remember the mnemonic Act FAST to identify stroke, where “F” stands for Fallen Face; “A” stands for inability to raise both arms high, “S” stands for slurred speech and the last “T” stands for the importance of time or in other words to act fast definitely within 6 hours if any of these signs are present.