"Giving clotbusting drugs to people with mild strokes could prevent more than  of them from becoming disabled each year researchers say. A stroke https occurs when a clot cuts off blood https flow to parts of the brain https Those parts of the brain https soon start to die. A drug called tissue plasminogen activator tPA dissolves clots and restores blood https flow. Mild strokes  characterized by such symptoms as clumsiness in the hand weakness https of an extremity some slurred speech temporary loss of vision https andor dizziness https  account for more than half of strokes in the U.S. But people with mild strokes are typically denied tPA because the studies that established its effectiveness excluded mild cases says Pooja Khatri MD of the University of Cincinnati. Its been assumed that people with mild strokes generally do well and the risk of tPA treatment which includes a slight but significant risk of lifethreatening bleeding in the brain https would not be worth the benefit she says. In fact one in three people who suffer a mild stroke https are disabled three months later Khatri says. Preventing Disability Khatri and colleagues analyzed hospital records from  patients diagnosed with mild stroke https in the Greater CincinnatiNorthern Kentucky region in . All arrived at the hospital within three and a half hours of symptom onset when tPA works best. Of the total  were considered to have mild strokes with a score of  or less on the point National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale. Only four patients  were given tPA. But   of the remaining patients would have been candidates for the drug if the mildness of their stroke had been disregarded as a reason to deny them tPA treatment. If these figures were extrapolated to the entire nation over  people with mild strokes would be eligible for tPA each year Khatri says. Assuming tPA is as effective as suggested by previous research this means  to  fewer patients would be disabled from mild stroke each year  saving the health care https system an estimated  million annually she says. The findings were presented at the American Stroke Association International Stroke Conference ISC. CostEffective Treatment Steven Greenberg MD PhD vice chair of the ISC meeting committee and professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School tells WebMD that the findings underscore the need to take mild stroke seriously. It would be hard to find patients who consider a mild stroke unimportant. Its not mild to them he says. You can almost argue there is no such thing as a mild stroke. The drug tPA isnt without risks chiefly brain https bleeding. But studies suggest people with mild stroke are less likely to have bleeding than those with the more severe strokes for which it is routinely used Khatri says. The drug costs about  but studies suggest it is more costeffective to treat patients with tPA compared to the later costs related to a disability says Philip B. Gorelick MD MPH head of neurology and stoke research at the University of Illinois in Chicago. Still further study of tPA in mild stroke is needed Khatri says. A large study for people with mild strokes that arent clearly disabling is planned she says. These findings were presented at a medical conference. They should be considered preliminary as they have not yet undergone the peer review process in which outside experts scrutinize the data prior to publication in a medical journal."