May 18, 2007, ST. LOUIS – Stroke experts have a phrase they think is as important as knowing 911:

"Time is Brain."

The phrase means if you or a loved one is having a stroke, there is a very limited amount of time to be treated before an onset of permanent problems can set in.

One in 10 persons over age 65 (and nearly half of persons over age 85) are affected by Alzheimer's

Susie Davis is a stroke nurse coordinator in the stroke center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. Her team at Barnes-Jewish is using Neuroscience Nurses Week from May 20 – 26, to get the message out that many stroke symptoms can be prevented if patients get to the hospital quickly. Davis says if you''re having symptoms, don''t drive yourself, call 911.

"The problem about having someone else drive you is that your symptoms can get worse," says Davis. "On the other hand, the emergency personnel can evaluate you and can get you to the closest hospital as fast as possible and also activate the emergency room team so they''re ready for you when you arrive."

Davis says Barnes-Jewish is part of a growing number of national certified stroke centers in the country. Certified stroke centers are trained in using the drug that helps stroke patients quickly called tPA – a drug that uses an enzyme in your own blood to dissolve the clot causing the stroke. Davis says emergency personnel know to take patients to centers like those that can give patients tPA.

"If you come to the emergency room within three hours you may be evaluated for tPA, which may either reduce your symptoms of stroke or totally resolve the symptoms of stroke," says Davis. "If you got to a hospital that doesn''t use tPA or there''s a delay in treatment, it can make your symptoms prolonged in the long run and recovery be a lot longer."

For these reasons, Davis emphasizes the importance of knowing the signs of stroke:

• Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm or leg, especially on one side of the body

• Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding someone else

• Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes

• Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination

• Sudden, severe headache with no explainable cause

Davis says many patients ignore those symptoms for too long. Unfortunately, for many people at that point it can be too late to reverse what can be devastating outcomes:

"So many people wait and call their primary care physician and they may not get a call back until hours later," says Davis. "It really does make the recovery much harder and we do recognize if they had gotten to the emergency room within that three hour window we may have been able to diminish some of their symptoms."