your support helps us to tell the story
A finger-prick blood test to diagnose the deadliest form of stroke might be twice as effective at spotting it than using a patient’s symptoms alone.
The test, which works similarly to a lateral flow test used to detect Covid, is being piloted by ambulance crews in Cambridgeshire.
The blood tests have been designed to detect if someone has suffered a large vessel occlusion (LVO), where a blood clot blocks a major artery in the brain.
This type of blood clot is responsible for about a third of strokes but causes about 95 per cent of disabilities and deaths.
A stroke is a very serious condition where the blood supply to part of your brain is cut off, and every minute a stroke is left untreated some 1.9 million brain cells die, increasing the risk of serious long-term disability and death, according to the Stroke Association.
