SEATTLE, Feb. 6, 2013 – Swedish Neuroscience Institute has added a new and innovative therapy to its treatment arsenal for glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) – a very aggressive and difficult to control brain tumor.
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Let's Talk About Stroke
Who likes thinking about stroke? It’s scary! But when we talk about it, we learn how to prevent and treat it. With quick and careful treatment—from diet and exercise to medications and guided rehabilitation—life can go on happily and healthily after stroke. But first of all, we need to start the conversation. So let’s chat.
You: What is a stroke?
Me: A stroke occurs when a clot of blood gets stuck in your brain or a blood vessel in your brain bursts. Many factors can increase your risk for stroke. Do you have high blood pressure, high cholesterol or diabetes? Do you smoke or are you overweight? Take this free risk assessment to see if you might be at risk for stroke.
You: How do I know if it’s a stroke?
Me: If you or a loved one has a stroke, check for signs and call 911 as soon as possible. When a stroke occurs, blood cannot get to parts of the brain that control speech and movement. When you notice these signs, the key is to think and act “FAST:”
F – Face: If...
Swedish Set to Open State-of-the-Art Multiple Sclerosis Center; New Facility Has Been Under Development for Several Years and Largely Funded Through Philanthropy
SEATTLE – April 6, 2012 – Swedish Neuroscience Institute (SNI) is set to open its new MS Center to patients. Carefully designed for easy accessibility and to promote the well-being of people with MS, the new 11,700-square-foot center gives SNI the ability to consolidate all of its MS services into one facility. An additional 1,500-square-feet of outside therapy terrace will provide a safe environment for patients to work with a therapist on improving their gait over different terrain.
The new center also enables scientists, researchers, physicians and patients to work collaboratively toward new treatment options for those diagnosed with MS. In a move that further establishes Swedish’s neuroscience program as a leader in the region, the MS Center at Swedish is the largest, most comprehensive facility of its kind on the West Coast and one of only a handful in the country.
The Spring Issue of BrainWaves Is Now Available
The Spring 2011 edition of BrainWaves is now available online.
BrainWaves is the newsletter of the Swedish Neuroscience Institute. Published quarterly, BrainWaves provides information about neurological conditions treated at the Institute, and also profiles the programs, services, and new initiatives of the institute and its staff.
Also check out our past editions of the BrainWaves newsletter.
Advances in thrombolysis
Washington State has one of the high est stroke mortality rates in the nation. To improve this situation, acute intervention al therapies for stroke are being employed to restore circulation to ischemic brain tissue that surrounds areas of completed infraction, while avoiding risk of hemor rhage due to reperfusion of large areas of infracted brain tissue.
Urgent thrombolysis with intrave nous alteplase is the only therapy known to improve clinical outcomes following acute stroke. Unfortunately, alteplase has had limited usage because many patients arrive in an emergency department after the three-hour treatment window. The FDA has also approved two clot removal devices based on the ability to restore circulation. These devices are used up to eight hours after symptom onset. Several approaches to improved acute stroke care are now under way, including extension of the thrombolysis window to 4.5 hours, identification of safer thrombolytic agents and research identifying brain at risk of in farction following a stroke.
A recent European study demonstrat ed the efficacy of alteplase up to 4.5 hours after ischemic stroke in patients younger than age 80 years who have neither dia betes mellitus or prior stroke. The safety profile during this longer window for these patients appears similar to that at three hours.
Another promising advance employs a new thrombolytic agent called des moteplase.
Options widening for wide-necked aneurysms
Intracranial aneurysms are present in up to 4 percent of the population. These potentially dangerous vascular lesions are being detected with increasing frequency in asymptomatic patients by advances in noninvasive imaging techniques, such as magnetic resonance angiography (MRA). Appearing like blisters on the wall of the brain’s blood vessels, aneurysms develop when the blood vessel’s native repair ability is exceeded by the mild, but constant, injury created by flowing blood under high pressure. The five most common risk factors for developing an aneurysm are: smoking, female gender, high blood pressure, middle age and family history.
Intracranial aneurysms are complex lesions that require a highly specialized, multidisciplinary approach that is individualized for each patient. Key members of the care team for these patients include endovascular neuroradiologists, neurosurgeons with special expertise in aneurysm surgery and neuroanesthesiologists. Availability of dedicated neurocritical care units is an essential care component. A consensus recommendation by these specialists may include close observation, obliteration of the aneurysm with a surgical clip, or filling the vascular outpouching with filamentous coils that are introduced by endovascular microcatheters via an artery in the leg. This latter process is called “coiling.”
Swedish Expands Radiosurgery Services
There was cause for celebration in the Swedish Radiosurgery Center on Thursday, Dec. 16, as neurosurgeon Ronald Young, M.D. (left), medical director of the Gamma Knife® program, and radiation oncologist Bob Meier, M.D. (below), 
medical director of the CyberKnife program, treated the center’s first two Gamma Knifepatients. The center, formerly known as the Seattle CyberKnife Center, supports both the Swedish Cancer Institute and the Swedish Neuroscience Institute.
The center has offered CyberKnife services since 2006. This year Swedish installed an Elekta Leksell Perfexion Gamma Knife®, making it one of the most advanced stereotactic radiosurgery centers in the country. CyberKnife can be used to treat cancerous and noncancerous tumors in all areas of the body.
At Swedish, Gamma Knife will be used to treat cancer of the brain and some neurological conditions, such as essential tremor, trigeminal neuralgia and arteriovenous malformations. Providing Swedish neurosurgeons and radiation oncologists access to both of these advanced technologies gives them greater flexibility in selecting the best radiation therapy for their patients. For more information, go to www.swedish.org/radiosurgery or call 206-320-7130.
