Medicine: Hope for Stroke Victims

Scientists have long believed that the irreversible damage caused by strokes results from cutting off oxygen to brain tissues that can survive only minutes without it. Now two neuroscientists have offered a more intricate theory that could explain some little-understood symptoms of strokes. It could also lead to treatments that could minimize the effects of strokes, which kill more than 200,000 Americans a year.

According to Dr. Richard Wurtman of M.I.T. and Dr. Nicholas Zervas of Beth Israel Hospital and Harvard Medical School, a large part of stroke injury may be caused by imbalances in the brain's neurotransmitters, the chemicals that carry...

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