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Now Playing: Saving Brain Cells After Stroke
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Reviewed By: Andrew Seibert,
SOURCES: 2008 Medical Reference from Medstar. Justin Sattin, M.D., Neurologist, University of Wisconsin Hospital, Madison, WI.
© 1999-2011 Medstar Television
After a stroke, time is your enemy. Hours may pass before symptoms are recognized, reducing the chance doctors can use clot-busting drugs.
They call their physicians, they call their family members, and by the time they show up in an emergency room somewhere, that window is often closed.
Clot-busting therapy has to start in the first three hours. But a new technology may save brain cells up to 24-hours after a stroke.
The hypothesis is that surrounding that core of irreversibly injured tissue is what we call a penumbra of tissue that's at risk of dying, but is still salvageable.
The treatment works like this—a cap is slipped on the head, then near-infrared light is exposed to twenty areas of the scalp.
The idea is to illuminate the entire brain so that the area of injury can be accessed from, from all sides.
Near-infrared light is the key. It activates the mitochondria, the power plants of cells, to produce a chemical critical to life.
It turns out that if you shine this near-infrared light on the mitochondria of the cells that it increases the production of ATP.
By producing ATP, the stunned cells in the vicinity of the stroke have energy to function.
The goal is to protect the brain cells from dying, or perhaps even to promote their regeneration.
And buy time for a brain in danger. For WebMD, I'm Sandee LaMotte.
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