text_1: Receiving a clot-buster drug before reaching the hospital may reduce stroke disability
text_2: Mobile stroke unit, University of Tennessee College of Medicine Photo: Business Wire Clot busting drugs are an established part of the tool kit in reducing damage related to strokes. Understanding exactly when to administer them is key to making sure they are used in the most effective way possible. This release describes a study of one mobile stroke unit’s experience administering clot-busting drugs — or tissue plasminogen activator (tPA). These study findings have not been peer reviewed for publication in a journal and appear to have major caveats around them. We won’t know all the details until the full study is published, and so we were pleased to see some caution expressed in the news release. A few more additions, like cost information and a better explanation of the benefits, would have helped make this release even better. [Editor’s note: A reference to clot-busting drugs “saving lives” was removed from the review. As noted in the comments section, the scope of benefits offered by tPA is controversial and the American Heart Association withdrew “life-saving” claims about tPA as discussed in these BMJ and Mother Jones stories.] The recent deployment of a handful of mobile stroke units across the country staffed with specialists and CT scanners makes this a timely release, particularly amidst the backdrop of unsustainable health care costs. The cost of outfitting all US cities with these types of units would be very great, and most of the new mobile units have been funded by private donors. Mobile stroke units could be most useful in remote areas where there is a long transport time from the scene to a hospital that could give thrombolytic therapy, but those areas are the least likely to have enough volume of patients to sustain the expertise of the mobile stroke unit’s staff.