Alexian Brothers Neurosciences Institute - Advanced Technology for Treating Stroke Patients

June 25, 2007 - The Alexian Brothers Neurosciences Institute has taken a quantum leap forward in the treatment of stroke patients with the establishment of a neuroendovascular program, including a neuroangiography suite, at Alexian Brothers Medical Medical Center in Elk Grove Village, Ill.

Two Alexian Brothers interventional neuroradiologists, Tim Malisch, M.D., and Franklin Marden, M.D., bring their expertise to ABHN, anchoring the neuroendovascular program and staffing the $5.5 million state-of-the-art Siemens neuroangiography suite, located next to the Diagnostic Imaging Department on the first floor of ABMC.

"There are very few physicians trained to do neuroendovascular interventions," says Mark Frey, ABHN Chief Executive Officer of the Alexian Brothers Hospital Network and Executive Vice President of the Alexian Brothers Health System. "This is the leading edge of stroke treatment and technology."

Neuroangiography is a minimally invasive diagnostic procedure that involves the use of X-rays, injected contrast media and sophisticated computer software to create real-time images of blood vessels in the brain. The contrast media flows with the blood, highlighting the blood vessels and their characteristics in the X-ray images. The neuroangiography suite also is known as a "biplane unit" because X-rays are taken on two different planes simultaneously.

"This means you need only one injection of contrast media for the patient, while you are taking two sets of pictures at the same time," Frey says. "This approach is valuable because it reduces risk for the patient because fewer injections of contrast media are needed. It also helps to save time and expense as well."

The X-ray images provide a three-dimensional road map of blood vessels for the neuroradiology interventionalist, who can proceed immediately to clear any blood-vessel blockages during a minimally invasive neuroendovascular intervention.

"The advantage of our system is that by having neuroangiography done by a interventional neuroradiologist, the patient does not have to be taken off the table if an intervention is necessary," Frey says. "In some hospitals, an angiogram may be done to determine what's wrong with the patient, but then the patient may need to be brought back for a separate procedure by a different physician or transferred to another facility altogether. We can do the angiogram and the intervention, if appropriate, at the same time while the patient is in the biplane suite."

The neuroangiography suite is designed for, among other things, patients who have suffered a stroke or a transient ischemic attack (TIA), a brief stroke that occurs when the blood supply to part of the brain is interrupted for a short time. TIAs are considered precursors of full-fledged strokes. Patients with aneurysms and arteriovenous malformations (a cluster of tangled blood vessels) also can benefit from neuroangiography and neuroendovascular intervention.

The neuroendovascular program has been structured as a 24/7 operation. "We don't know when a person will come in with a stroke," Frey says. "Our goal is to move the patient quickly into the neuroangiography suite and get our team assembled fast, even if it's 2 a.m."

It's unusual for a community-based hospital network to have a neuroendovascular program, Frey says. "Most community hospitals never develop this type of capability," he says. You gain access to intellectual capital that you otherwise would not have."