Strokes

Whether it's jazz, blues or a bracing Finnish folk song, music may do more than soothe nerves and inspire a little air guitar. It may help stroke victims recover specific verbal and cognitive functions. In a six-month study of 60 recent victims of stroke ages 35 to 75, researchers in Finland found that exposure to music for at least one hour a day improved verbal memory by 60%, compared with an 18% improvement among participants listening to audiobooks.

What's new: Women and Mexican Americans appear to be at higher risk of a type of stroke that causes bleeding in the space between the brain and its surrounding tissues. The finding: An ongoing study of strokes among the residents of Corpus Christi, Texas, has reported that women account for more than two-thirds of the city's cases of a kind of stroke called a subarachnoid hemorrhage -- even though they make up just over half of the city's population.

If you have a stroke, try to have it between Monday and Friday. A Canadian study released Thursday found that patients hospitalized for the most common kind of stroke on weekends had a higher death rate than those admitted on weekdays. The "weekend effect" has been identified before in other conditions such as cancer and pulmonary embolism.

REASON No. 495 to flush the uppers: Cocaine and amphetamines may increase the risk of stroke. Crunching numbers from a database of more than 3 million hospital patients, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas found that amphetamine abuse was associated with a nearly five-fold increase in hemorrhagic stroke -- bleeding within the brain.

For people who have suffered a stroke, lingering disabilities are a wrenching reminder of what their lives used to be. A lopsided smile, difficulty moving an arm or a leg, trouble articulating thoughts -- all can be among the devastating and frequently permanent consequences of a stroke. In fact, of the almost 6 million Americans who have had a stroke, only 10% will recover completely. The numbers shouldn't be this grim.

Patients who stop getting cholesterol-lowering medications after being hospitalized for a stroke are almost five times more likely to die or become dependent within three months. Though doctors aren't told to stop cholesterol treatment with the drugs known as statins in stroke patients, many do to avoid problems that occur when stomach contents are regurgitated into the lungs. That may be a mistake.

Administering the antibiotic minocycline within 24 hours after a stroke significantly reduces brain damage and physical impairment, Israeli researchers reported. Researchers hope the drug, which also combats inflammation, may widen the "golden window" during which strokes can be treated. Clot-dissolving drugs -- the current gold standard for stroke treatment -- must be administered in the first three hours to be effective, and many patients do not receive them in time.

Patients who receive treatment for a minor stroke within 24 hours reduce their risk of a second stroke by 80% compared with those who wait three days or more to see a doctor, according to a new study released today. Many patients who experience the relatively mild and temporary symptoms of a minor stroke -- slurred speech, arm weakness and dizziness -- often forgo seeing a doctor for days or weeks. Some doctors also fail to initiate immediate treatment for such symptoms.

Ev3 Inc. has agreed to pay $15.4 million to settle a dispute with Boston Scientific Corp. and the University of California in the U.S. and Europe over coil devices to prevent strokes. Ev3, of Plymouth, Minn., said it would pay $3.7 million to Boston Scientific and $11.7 million to the university. It won't be required to pay future royalties or stop selling existing products, Ev3 said.

Some patients with severe sickle cell disease may need a lifetime of blood transfusions to reduce the chances of suffering a stroke. Scientists had hoped that patients with the blood disease could be treated with a limited number of transfusions. But a new study of 100 children, published in the Dec. 29 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, found that the stroke risk reappeared after blood exchanges were stopped.