New Technology Allows for Faster Stroke Diagnosis

As technology continues to develop, so do the ways we can use it to treat medical emergencies.

A new technology developed by Cornell University can diagnose a stroke in under 10 minutes using just a drop of blood.

This is significantly shorter than previous methods, which may have taken up to three hours. During a stroke, the blood flow an area of the brain is shut off. Diagnosing this early can result in saving countless brain cells and lessen the long-term effects of the stroke.

“Three-quarters of stroke patients suffer from ischemic stroke—a blockage of a blood vessel in the brain. In those cases, time is of the essence, because there is a good drug available, but for a successful outcome it has to be given within three or four hours after the onset of symptoms,” says Roy Cohen, a research scientist at the Baker Institute. “By the time someone identifies the symptoms, gets to the hospital and sits in the emergency room, you don’t have much time to obtain the full benefit of this drug.”

Cohen says that because of the small size and simplicity of the new technology, it can be used at a patients’ bedside.

The technology could lead to further medical developments. It has the possibility to expand to test for traumatic brain injuries, some forms of dementia and some forms of cancer by identifying biomarkers.

The testing could be used in the sports medicine field, as Cohen says they are testing the system to detect TBI in mixed martial arts athletes, with promising results so far.

The study appears in the Nov. 25 issue of the journal PLOS ONE.