Stroke Stopper

Intracranial atherosclerotic disease, or ICAD, is a disease that causes strokes in more than 700,000 people in the United States annually. Until now, this disease has been treated with medicine, such as an aspirin regiment or anti-platelet agent, or by using heart stents in the brain. However, these stents are too stiff to be used in the brain and they injure the arteries. Also, it is difficult to get the cardio stents into the brain because of all the curvy arteries. Neuroradiologists have solved this problem by creating the new wingspan stent, specifically designed for patients with ICAD. The Wingspan Stent System is different from regular stents because it is flexible, and instead of being made of steel, as some stents are, it is instead made of a combination of an alloy of nickel and titanium, which puts less pressure on the blood vessel when it expands. The new stent will not help high cholesterol or high blood pressure, but it will extensively decrease the risk of stroke.

I found it very interesting how the doctors used existing technology, modified it, and have now come up with a new way to save hundreds of thousands of lives. I am very interested in neurology, and and the fact that these neuroradiologists discovered this great new way to help people really caught my attention.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2006/0407-stroke_stopper.htm