Neurology Jefferson Hospital for Neuroscience News Archive Featured in the Media JeffNEWS

The Acute Stroke Center at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital will provide free screenings to identify people at risk for stroke on Wednesday, April 27, in the lobby of Jefferson’s Gibbon Building  S. 10th Street between Chestnut and Sansom streets, Philadelphia.

The screenings will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. No appointments are necessary. Jefferson stroke center staff will check blood pressure and look for signs of carotid artery disease and atrial fibrillation.

This free health program is meant to alert the public to the dangers of stroke, also known as a “brain attack.” The term "brain attack" is sometimes used to convey the seriousness and urgency of a stroke to the public.

Most strokes and heart attacks are caused by blood clots that form or lodge at a site of atherosclerosis. It’s important that patients recognize the warning signs of a stroke, including a numbness on one side of the body and a loss of vision, and to treat stroke as a medical emergency.

If any of these symptoms occur, the patient must get to a doctor or hospital emergency department quickly for treatment, usually within three hours for the newest drug therapies to be effective.

For more information, call 1-800-JEFF-NOW.