More than 750,000 people suffer from strokes each year in the U.S. Of those, up to one-third of the cases are due to unknown causes, leaving patients at risk for future strokes or death. Now, a new implantable device the size of a matchstick could change that.
Larry Ambrose plays the ukulele with ease. What didnt come easy was learning at a trip to the hospital for high blood pressure, that hed actually had a stroke.
I was very frightened, Ambrose told Ivanhoe.
Like nearly one-third of all stroke patients, Larry had a cryptogenic stroke, meaning doctors didnt know what caused it, putting him at risk for another.
The stroke, you dont know when its coming, where its going to strike, he said.
Richard Bernstein, MD, Director of the Stroke Program at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, said that its patients like Larry who are most worrisome because without a cause, physicians must guess the best treatment.
Thats a big problem in society. About 250,000 of these occur a year, just in the United States, and all of those folks are at risk for having another stroke if we dont get the medical therapy right, Dr. Bernstein told Ivanhoe.
Now, a new implantable cardiac device can detect the cause of the stroke.
That monitor can detect brief episodes of something called atrial fibrillation. Thats an irregular heartbeat, Dr. Bernstein said.
If a blood clot then travels to the brain, it can cause a stroke. If the monitor detects a-fib first, doctors prescribe blood thinners.
If we can put a monitor in and tell them they dont have atrial fibrillation and that they are on the right therapy even thats quite reassuring to them, Dr. Bernstein explained.
It really was therapeutic. It really helped me kinda say, okay, Im cool, Ambrose said.
A monitor that makes sure Larry doesnt skip a beat.
A-fib causes up to one in every five strokes and every year in this country, about 156,000 people have a-fib strokes.