If Dr. Mateja de Leonni Stanonik wants people to know two things about stroke, theyre this: Speed is of the essence for treatment, and FAST an acronym to help people recognize the first signs of stroke can save your life.
I cant tell you how important it is for people to present to the emergency room if they have symptoms as soon as possible, but certainly in the first three to 4 hours, she said.
My overall goal is for people to realize that strokes are treatable, but they are only treatable if this time window is achieved. The faster a patient gets clot-busting medicine, the better the outcome, and if they get the medicine in the first 60 minutes, the outcome or resolution will likely be the best.
De Leonni Stanonik is chairwoman for the Tucson Heart & Stroke Walk, which is at 8:30 a.m. next Sunday at Reid Park.
A neurologist with the Center for Neurosciences in Tucson, de Leonni Stanonik is a former surgeon general for Slovenia and is a member of the board of directors for the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association for Southern Arizona. The association is now heavily promoting stroke awareness, treatment and prevention in conjunction with its annual walk, said walk director Brittany Starace.
The timing coincides with the national FAST campaign touting awareness about the warning signs of stroke. The acronym was designed to highlight symptoms that are easy to remember: F for face drooping, including numbness or an uneven smile; A for arm weakness or the inability to lift an arm; S for speech difficulty, which can include slurred speech or the inability to speak; and T is for time to call 911 and get the person to the hospital immediately.
Recognition of these symptoms and timely intervention can have a significant impact on quality of life for patients, de Leonni Stanonik said.
Strokes are the number one leading cause of disability and by far the biggest financial burden on society, and that is why prevention is so important, she said. The medical treatment for stroke victims is extremely expensive and that includes rehabilitation. Many of these people are also not likely to return to the workforce and lead productive and functional lives as they did before.
A cornerstone of the awareness campaign is prevention. It is so much easier to improve your diet, exercise, control high blood pressure and cholesterol and lower your stress before something happens. All of these are true for prevention of strokes as well as prevention of heart attacks, de Leonni Stanonik said.
Another aspect of public education involves outreach to segments of the population, including Hispanics, at high risk of stroke. The American Heart Association says the incidence of cardiovascular disease among Mexican-American men age 20 and older is 33.4 percent and 30.7 percent among women; the incidence of high blood pressure for the same population is 30.1 percent for men and 28.8 women for women.
Read more from the original source:
Tucson Giving: Tucson Heart & Stroke Walk