Mitchell S.V. Elkind, M.D., is American Heart Association president-elect, chair of the Advisory Committee of the American Stroke Association — a division of the American Heart Association and professor of neurology and epidemiology at Columbia University New York. 

copyright American Heart Association

"This study was performed only in Berlin. And so, it remains to be seen how generalizable this will be to the United States and to other parts of the world. It wasn't a small study, there were 1,500 patients, approximately, in the study. Half getting treated with the mobile stroke unit and half not. So, the numbers look good and the results were quite impressive. Mobile stroke units are available in some cities in the United States. There are several in New York City, for example, where I practice.

There are several in other parts of the country as well. But it's certainly a limited resource. The vast majority of cities in the U.S. do not have this kind of treatment available. These kinds of results, though, may change that. And if there is a functional benefit, then we're gonna have to start thinking about whether we're willing to make the investments in this kind of treatment. We've made these kind of investments in cardiac care in past years. And it may be time to do that in stroke care as well."