UCLA Brain Attack Team | UCLA Stroke Center

UCLA STROKE TEAM: Front row (left to right): Heavenly Swendsen, Paul Vespa, MD, Critical Care Neurology David Liebskind, MD, Neurology; Jeffry Alger, PhD; Middle row (left to right) Judy Guzy, RN, Stroke Network; Rozina Shamji, Stroke Network; Yvonne Schooley, RN, Stroke Network; Sidney Starkman, MD, Emergency Medicine & Neurology; Fernando Vinuela, MD, Interventional Neuroradiology. Back: Jeffrey Saver, MD, Neurology; Gary Duckwiler, MD, Interventional Neuroradiology. Not shown: Neil Martin, MD, Neurosurgery; Bruce Dobkin, MD, Neurorehabilitation;.

It's not just called stroke any more. Now, the term is "Brain Attack," words chosen to convey not only the severity of the problem, but also the urgency. New medications and interventions can minimize damage to the brain, with dramatic results for stroke patients, if help is sought in time. The window of opportunity: only minutes to hours from the time of the attack.

The UCLA Stroke Center's Brain Attack Team includes: emergency neurology, Dr. Sidney Starkman; stroke neurology, Drs. Jeffrey Saver and Chelsea Kidwell; critical care neurology, Dr. Paul Vespa; vascular neurosurgery, Drs. Neil Martin and John Frazee; neurological rehabilitation, Dr. Bruce Dobkin; interventional neuroradiology, Drs. Fernando Vinuela, Eric Aldrich, Gary Duckwiler, Pierre Gobin and Guido Guglielmi. "The range of our expertise in the area of stroke medicine is truly unparalleled in the country," said Starkman. "And so is our productivity in terms of research and clinical advances."

Among these advances, UCLA is a major center studying neuroprotective drugs, medications that save the brain from stroke. tPA is a clot-busting medication, recently approved by the FDA, that has proven to effective if delivered within the first three hours of stroke. Stroke team members are trying to extend the treatment window and pioneering methods of delivering this novel medication to the site of the clot, potentially vastly improving its effectiveness. Neuroperfusion, a method of reversing bloodflow to sustain areas of the brain deprived by a blood clot, was developed by UCLA's Frazee with promising initial success. The Guglielmi Detachable Coil, the first endovascular device to receive FDA approval for the treatment of intracranial aneurysms, was developed and tested at UCLA, and is now widely used.

On the horizon are new medications that could reduce the damage of a stroke, and better methods of imaging at-risk brain areas earlier to guide immediate treatment. "Another key is education outreach to the general public and to medical professionals, including paramedics," said Starkman. "If we can save people in time, we can save brains, and lives" (Excerpted from UCLA Medicine, Spring 1997; Vol 18).