Your Health Now: Strokes

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FORT MYERS, Fla.- Clots interrupting blood flow or blocking vessels in the brain are the cause of ischemic strokes.

The standard treatment is a clot-dissolving drug called tPA, which must be given intravenously within 4.5 hours to be effective.

For people with large clots it only works about a third of the time. Endovascular treatment (EVT), the most significant advance in stroke treatment within the last 20 years, removes the clot by means of stent retrievers. Studies have shown the new procedure produces better outcomes including more lives saved.

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