Sunday, August 4, 2013

Bigger and Better Stroke Detector

Hey, that rhymes!

The Reader's Digest recently posted in their current issue new and exciting medical breakthroughs, one of them being a better stroke detector. According to them, there is now a new test that may determine whether dizziness is being caused by a stroke or another condition preventing misdiagnosis's of as many as "100,000 strokes a year." Boy, I wish this was around when I had my stroke. Then time wouldn't have been wasted and it couldn't have been mistaken as a migraine.

How it works is that a patient wears goggles connected to a webcam and a laptop records video of eye movement as the patient looks at a target. If one is experiencing just dizziness, eyes wander off. If it's a stroke, well they stay focused. Imagine, a test that is better than an MRI or CT scan!

This is currently available at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. Hopefully more hospitals will have this available soon!