You may have seen the above image circulating recently and/or you may have read this article by Rick Bukata, MD. FAST-MAG was a multicenter randomized, controlled clinical trial out of UCLA studying prehospital administration of magnesium sulfate to treat stroke. The results are in. It didn’t work. Not necessarily surprising. This paper states we’ve tested over 20 drugs in 270 preclinical trials with […]

15-30% of strokes are cardioembolic and 60-90% of stroke patients present with ECG abnormalities. (Source) So let me ask you some questions. Is it important to obtain a 12 lead ECG during a suspected acute stroke in the prehospital setting? Why? Why not? Does it really matter either way? Before we discuss the answer… Here’s the abnormalities you’re likely to […]