De Grey shares Strole’s belief that innovations are coming. But, unlike Strole, he considers current strategies almost pointless. He does not take hundreds of supplements. He does not pay for stem-cell transfusions. “I want to wait and see,” he says. At 56, he is content to sit tight for treatments that have become “progressively more effective… so I don’t have to use clunky, first-generation therapies that may have side-effects.” There are two kinds of haemorrhagic stroke, intracerebral haemorrhage (ICH) and subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH):

Using your thumbs, slightly open the mouth by downward displacement of the chin. Oropharyngeal airway (Guedel) Request a CT head immediately in all cases of suspected stroke. A CT head is important to identify intracranial haemorrhage (as these patients must not receive thrombolysis). A PACS (partial anterior circulation stroke) is caused by an infarct that only affects part of the anterior circulation and causes two of the above, or higher cerebral dysfunction alone. In some patients who receive early imaging, the thrombus or embolus may be visible within the vessel. This appears as hyperdensity within the vessel (e.g. hyperdense middle cerebral artery).All patients seen with an acute neurological syndrome suspected to be a stroke should be transferred directly to a specialised hyper-acute stroke unit that will assess for thrombolysis and other urgent interventions and deliver them if clinically indicated. Others claim they can already prevent aging in animals. George Church, a Harvard professor and the founder of Rejuvenate Bio, uses gene therapy to add anti-aging instructions to DNA. Church says he has succeeded in making mice live twice as long, and the secretive company is said to be planning imminent testing on dogs. Ask how the patient is feeling as this may provide some useful information about their current symptoms. Preparation You may need further help or advice from a senior staff member and you should not delay seeking help if you have concerns about your patient. Auscultation of the heart may reveal irregular heart sounds suggestive of atrial fibrillation. Investigations and procedures Intravenous cannulation

For patients who do not fit the criteria for acute management (thrombolysis/thrombectomy), general medical management involves: CT angiogram (aortic arch to the circle of Willis): looking for large vessel occlusion, vessel dissection or stenosis.The NIHSS is a systematic, quantitative assessment tool for stroke-related neurological deficits. The higher the number, the greater the deficit and the bigger the stroke. Measure the patient’s capillary blood glucose level to screen for hypoglycaemia or hyperglycaemia. Hypoglycaemia is a common stroke mimic and must be excluded. In the context of a stroke, the handover may be from nursing staff (for in-hospital strokes) or ambulance staff (for pre-hospital strokes). Introduction In an ischaemic stroke, the CT head may be normal or show hypodensity. A CT may identify other intracranial pathology, including a space-occupying lesion.

See our guides to recording and interpreting an ECG for more details. Interventions Intravenous fluids Acting FAST will give the person having a stroke the best chance of survival and recovery. Always call 999 straight away. Soft tissue swelling: causes include anaphylaxis and infection (e.g. quinsy, necrotising fasciitis).Stroke is a medical emergency. If you experience any of the symptoms below, you should call 999. How to identify a stroke Well done, you’ve now stabilised the patient and they’re doing much better. There are just a few more things to do… Take a history At present our bodies are built to last – “if you took perfect care of your body” – 125 years, according to Strole. The problem is that if someone did live to be 125, they are unlikely to remain spry into their final decades. Inspect the patient’s skin for evidence of bruising, which may indicate an underlying clotting abnormality (e.g. disseminated intravascular coagulation).

Are we anywhere near to a breakthrough? So far, research has produced modest yields. Gerontologists speak prophetically of potential, but most warn a significant human development remains somewhere far off in the distance – almost in sight but not quite. Richard Hodes, the director of the National Institute of Aging, a US government agency, told me that, though research in animals has led to “dramatic increases in lifespan”, some of them multi-fold, “There has been far less quantitative effect as those models have moved towards mammalian species.” The biologist Laura Deming, who in 2011 established the Longevity Fund, a venture capital firm that supports “high-potential longevity companies”, told me that startups continue to successfully root out biological markers of ageing – inefficient cells, mitochondrial decline – but that, in humans, “We really don’t know right now what will work and what won’t.” The discovery by Calico scientists in 2018 that naked mole rats – which look exactly how they sound, except with bigger teeth – essentially do not age fueled further excitement in the quest for immortality. MRI FAST head: sometimes performed in an acute setting, especially in wake-up strokes. Comparing different sequences can show if there is still perfusion and if someone would benefit from thrombolysis.

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Hypoglycaemia is defined as a plasma glucose of less than 3.0 mmol/l. In hospitalised patients, a blood glucose ≤4.0 mmol/L should be treated if the patient is symptomatic. Yes: if the patient can talk, their airway is patent and you can move on to the assessment of breathing.