Timing is crucial in the treatment of most medical conditions — and none more so than acute stroke. In such cases, experts urge patients and doctors to heed a narrow window of 4.5 hours. This is the amount of time that can elapse between stroke onset and the administration of a clot-busting medication, such as tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), that can significantly reduce the risk of brain damage. Since the 1997 advent of tPA, medical experts have increased their efforts to get stroke victims to the hospital as soon as possible. Disappointingly, however, a recent paper in the journal Stroke reported that only 4 percent of stroke patients were receiving tPA — largely because they were arriving at the hospital too late.
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