A stroke occurs when blood flow to part of the brain is interrupted by a clogged or ruptured blood vessel. Stroke is the second leading cause of death in the world, and for good reason: cach year, no less than 15 million people are affected by a strokeof which 5 million die, and 5 million suffer permanent disability following the accident.
In such an accident, every minute counts for the patient. In fact, no less than 2 million neurons are destroyed every minute following a stroke. Very often, once the accident is over and the patient is taken care of, real physical sequelae, sometimes irreversible, can appear. The speed of patient care is therefore essential.
The head of the service of the Brest neurovascular unit, Professor Serge Timsit, underlined the importance of rapid care for this type of patient: “You have to go very, very quickly. If we let several hours pass, the injured area of the brain will be destroyed and it will be irremediable. On the other hand, if we intervene in the first hours, the artery can be unblocked, we avoid that the surrounding brain tissue suffers. This allows for recovery and even healing.”
During a stroke, a diagnosis is needed in order to be able to offer the patient the most appropriate care for his case. In order to obtain this diagnosis, it is necessary to interpret brain images by a doctor. However, due to medical deserts and lack of medical personnelunfortunately not all hospitals have people qualified to analyze these images. This has the effect of considerably reducing the speed of support, and this therefore impacts the probability that the patient will not suffer sequelae and even, in the most severe cases, his chances of survival. This is explained by Professor Norbert Nighoghossian of the Vascular Neurology Department of the Lyon University Hospital: “there are areas where you do not have radiologists permanently in the emergency department. So you don’t have an expert who can interpret the imaging data. “.
It is to overcome this major problem that an Oxford company has developed artificial intelligence Brainomix e-Storke. This AI actually makes it possible to facilitate the interpretation of patient brain scans so that the appropriate treatment is initiated as soon as possible.
On Tuesday December 27, 2022, the UK Department of Health announced that the number representing the absence or weak sequelae following a stroke has been multiplied by 3 with this artificial intelligence which has been implemented in 5 English hospital networks.
Thus, its use, in 111,000 cases of suspected stroke, increased by nearly 16 to 48% the rate of patients without any disability or mild sequelae.
The ministry stresses that the help provided by AI in the interpretation of medical imaging of the brain allows the patient “to have the right treatment, in the right place, at the right time”.
This AI might therefore make it possible to remedy, in part, the problems of lack of staff in hospitals and increase the chances of the absence of sequelae for patients.
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