Interventional cardiologists and interventional vascular radiologists have the ideal background to support interventional neuroradiologists in providing 24-hour cover for stroke patients who need mechanical thrombectomy of cerebral arteries, according to a keynote presentation given at this week's EuroPCR meeting in Paris.
In many European countries there are not enough interventional neuroradiologists to provide 24-hour cover for the whole population, noted Dr. Jacques Gerard Moret of Baylor College of Medicine in Waco, TX, U.S.
"If we accept that the highly developed skills of interventional vascular radiologists and interventional cardiologists, who routinely operate outside the cerebral circulation, are in fact transferable, then there already exists a potential pool of experts who could help fill the void until the training of dedicated interventional neuroradiologists can catch up," he said.
