Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Millions suffer strokes each year, six million of whom do not survive, one in six people suffers a stroke once in their lifetime, said Prof Dr Arsalan Ahmad, consultant neurologist Shifa International Hospital and President of Pakistan Society of Neurology on Saturday.

He said this on the World Brain Day. He said that there are few other diseases for which treatment options have improved so radically over the past decade and a half.

“Today we can finally say that strokes are treatable. Stroke is one of the most important non-communicable disease, which is preventable and treatable,” he said.

This year’s theme is “Stroke is a Brain Attack – Prevent it – Treat it”. Pakistan Society of Neurology (PSN) with Pakistan Stroke Society on Saturday organized an awareness seminar to mark World Brain Day in Hotel Margalla, Islamabad. The program was attended by neurologists, medical specialists and medical students of the twin cities.

Prof Mazhar Badshah, head Department of Neurology at PIMS and President Pakistan Stroke Society -discussed the prevention of stroke. He said that a large proportion of all strokes are avoidable, according to data from the inter-stroke study. He highlighted 10 influence able risk factors are responsible for 91 percent of all strokes worldwide. These are high blood pressure, physical inactivity, an unfavourable situation of blood lipids, poor diet, a high waist-to-hip ratio, psychosocial factors, and smoking, a high alcohol intake, cardiac disease and diabetes. He said that high blood pressure is the single largest risk factor for stroke and hypertension is behind almost 50 percent of all strokes and also increases the risk of intracerebral haemorrhage, which often leads to particularly severe disabilities. There, is potential to add 100 million healthy years worldwide solely from effective strategies designed to reduce strokes. He said that in addition to focusing on the effective treatment of diabetes, increased blood lipids and atrial fibrillation, as well as preventing obesity and promoting physical activity, experts are also pushing for the speedy introduction of a global smoking ban. Dr Sehrish Aieshah, consultant stroke neurologist, said stroke, its treatment and prevention must be given the highest priority in healthcare policy in every country.

“As advocates for stroke patients, we will not tire of calling for and promoting fair distribution of treatment opportunities for stroke patients. But for this to happen, all hospitals need to be equipped with specialist stroke units, and medicine for basic thrombolysis treatment needs to be made available. But that is not all.”

Current hyper acute stroke care management module reflects the growing and changing body of research evidence available to guide assessment, diagnosis and management in first few hours after stroke.

Published in Daily Times, July 23^rd 2017.