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Emory neurologist receives award at International Stroke Conference

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Rishi Gupta, MD, associate professor of neurology at Emory University School of Medicine, was recognized by the American Stroke Association for one of the best research abstracts at its international conference. Gupta’s research was aimed at finding the most efficient method for determining the level of irreversible brain damage in stroke patients — either no-contrast CT scan or CT perfusion (CTP) – prior to performing any endovascular procedures.

The abstract was titled “CT Perfusion Increases Time to Reperfusion and May Not Enhance Patient Selection for Endovascular Reperfusion Therapies in Acute Ischemic Stroke.”
 
Gupta, who sees patients at the Marcus Stroke and Neuroscience Center at Grady Memorial Hospital, served as the principal investigator of the research study. He had one of the three highest rated abstracts among 1,500 abstracts presented at the International Stroke Conference, which is the world’s largest meeting on stroke research and care.  

“I am honored to be recognized with this award and thankful to all of the collaborators I worked with on this study,” says Gupta. “The strong reception of this exploratory study shows that there truly is an interest in ways to offer more efficient care to acute stroke patients.”  

Gupta and his collaborators, including Raul Nogueira, MD, associate professor of neurology at Emory University School of Medicine, also a physician at the Marcus Stroke and Neuroscience Center at Grady Memorial Hospital, found that while CTP provides more specific images, the procedure takes approximately 45 minutes longer.  

“The time elapsed was longer for CTP patients than in those who just had a CT scan; however, CTP patients did not have better outcomes,” says Gupta. “We think the additional time CTP takes offsets the benefit of getting more specific images because while time is ticking, brain cells are dying. Those minutes are valuable.”  
Gupta and his colleagues currently are designing a large, multi-center trial to expand upon these findings.  

“Being recognized by the international community of experts in cerebrovascular disease is a tremendous accomplishment for Dr. Gupta,” says Michael Frankel, MD, professor of neurology at Emory University School of Medicine and chief of neurology and director of the Marcus Stroke and Neuroscience Center at Grady Memorial Hospital.  “We’re proud of the groundbreaking contributions Drs. Gupta and Nogueira are making in the field of cerebrovascular disease. The findings of this study help establish the foundation for a simpler, faster, and safer approach to selecting patients who may benefit from endovascular treatment of acute ischemic stroke.”


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