About 35% or 500 out of 100 000 strokes that occur in South Africa every year can now be prevented. This is thanks to a new drug registered for use in the country this week for the prevention and management of strokes in people with a heart condition known as Atrial Fibrillation.
Sufffering a stroke is becoming more common in South Africa, affecting about 130 people a day. About half the people who suffer a stroke are likely to die within the first year of having it. Adults over the age of 40 are at highest risk. This is because 1 in 4 adults over 40 are more likely to suffer a heart condition known as atrial fibrillation, which is responsible for a third of all strokes. Dr Kevin Ho, the Medical Director at Boehringer-Ingelheim, explains that atrial fibrillation is a condition where the normal heart beat is affected and becomes irregular.
Atrial fibrillation is the commonest cardiac arythmia or rhythm disturbance of the heart and the significance of atrial fibrillation in stroke is that it increases the risk of stroke five-fold and is also associated with particularly severe and disabling strokes. Atrial fibrillation is the condition where the upper chambers of the heart tend to behave very erratically. Theres a very dis-coordinated electrical conduction. As a result, theres no effective pumping of the blood from the upper chambers into the ventricle, which is the main muscular pump of the heart. And, as a result of that, one tends to get pulling and stasis of blood within the atrial appendage, which is a structure in the upper chamber. That, then, is where the risk of developing a clot occurs and with that, the risk of it embolising or breaking off to essentially shoot through to the blood vessels and circulation supplying the brain and, in so doing, cause a stroke, says Dr Ho.
He says Boehringer-Ingelheim sought to develop a new drug to prevent the development of blood clots in the heart area. The drug, whose trade name is Pradaxa, is prescribed to be taken orally twice daily.
It prevents clots developing, particularly, in the upper chambers of the heart the so-called the atrial appendage. By thinning the blood, it prevents the development of clots and, thereby, reduces the risk of developing a stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation.
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South Africa: Hope for Stroke Prevention