Challenge

Every year, 20,000 Belgians are affected by a stroke. A stroke occurs when the blood supply to a part of the brain is suddenly compromised by cerebral haemorrhage or cerebral infarction. Stroke is the leading cause of disability. About 85% of patients suffer a cerebral infarction and are eligible for treatment with a drug that aims to dissolve the blood clot (tissue plasminogen activator or tPA).

However, the symptoms of cerebral infarction are indistinguishable from those of cerebral haemorrhage. Patients with a brain infarct can therefore be treated with tPA only after a computed tomographic (CT) scan has ruled out a haemorrhage.

Timely treatment of cerebral infarction leads to a better outcome: as long as the blood supply is not restored, brain damage continues to increase.

Patients treated within the first 90 minutes of symptom onset are therefore about twice as likely to improve compared with patients treated only after 3h. This also implies a significant reduction in long-term disability effects.

With this project, UZLeuven wishes to carry out and validate the construction and implementation of a full-fledged ambulance equipped with CT scan and audio-video connectivity. Since a lot of time is lost by transporting the patient to a hospital equipped with CT scan, potentially a lot of time can be saved by performing a CT scan at the patient's home. After clinical examination by an on-site neurologist, or via remote audio-video link, and after ruling out brain haemorrhage by CT scan, treatment can then be started immediately.