Your Health: Helping recover from a stroke

LANSING, Mich. (WILX) - Every 40 seconds, someone in the United States has a stroke.

If a person doesn’t get quick medical attention, a stroke can cause death or a disability.

It’s sometimes called a brain attack. An artery in the brain becomes blocked or a blood vessel bursts, causing bleeding in the brain. The faster doctors can treat a stroke, the better a patient’s chance of recovery.

Dr. Pooja Khatri and Dr. Achala Vagal are leading the verify trial for stroke patients, where they’ll use two biomarkers to assess the chance for recovery.

“Our preliminary studies suggest that they’re very good at predicting who will recover their strength, particularly, specifically in their arm,” Khatri said.

Researching will test with transcranial magnetic stimulation or TMS.

“We’re seeing if the hand moves and we’re actually measuring the impulse of the muscle,” Khatri said. “So, to see if we’re even seeing tiny muscle movements that tell us that the brain is successfully talking to the hand.”

Researchers will also use MRI to screen a patient’s brain for lesions. Scientists want to determine how much of the pathway between the brain and limbs is blocked.

“What we are really interested is in understanding where is the stroke or that dead brain tissue,” Vagal said.

They’re learning how to harness the power of the brain to recover function after a stroke.

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