Study suggests stroke centers save lives

CLEVELAND - Where you are treated could improve your chance of surviving a stroke.

New research published in JAMA , the Journal of the American Medical Association, shows patients who had an ischemic stroke and were admitted to hospitals designated as primary stroke centers had a modestly lower risk of death.

Researchers at the Duke Clinical Research Institute compared those patients to patients who were admitted to non-designated hospitals.

Treatment at a primary stroke center was associated with a 2.5 percent reduction in death one month after hospitalization compared to treatment at non-accredited hospital.

Authors of the study call the differences in survival rates “modest," but said it does show that specially designated stroke centers can be life-saving for some patients with acute ischemic stroke.

Stroke is the leading cause of serious long-term disability and the third leading cause of death in the United States.