A new way to keep patients cool race could help them survive the ordeal with less damage to the brain, according to a small clinical trial . If the pan results in larger studies, they could offer an alternative therapy cheap and desperately needed to improve the chances of recovery.
Stroke is the third most common cause of death in the United States and the first cause of disability. When a blood vessel is blocked or bursts, parts of the brain lose oxygen and die. The researchers have developed drugs that reduce brain damage in animals - but the drugs have not helped much in humans. Another approach was inspired in part by an unexpected observation 1996. stroke patients who have a slightly cooler body temperature when they were admitted to the hospital were up to 80% more likely to be alive after 6 months. This, as well as animal studies showing that the temperature of the fresh body minimized race damage, "encouraged us to try to intervene," says neurologist Lars Kammersgaard Genofte the University Hospital in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Kammersgaard team designed a special cover that pumps air to 10 degrees Celsius. They wrapped 17 stroke patients in blankets and gave them a drug to prevent shivering, which warms the body. The dual treatment cooled safely the bodies of victims of stroke of 1.5 degrees Celsius in 6 hours, the researchers report in the September issue of Stroke . The study was too small to reveal if cooling has allowed the recovery of patients. More patients who were treated with the coverage were alive after 6 months compared with patients who maintained normal body temperatures, and refrigerated patients had less brain damage, although the differences are not not statistically significant. For monitoring, the team plans to conduct a large clinical trial called the project Nordic cooling, which could start accepting patients by the end of the year.
Other experts like what they see so far. "There is a possibility that it could work in the clinic," says neuroscientist Thomas Sick of the University of Miami School of Medicine. But he warns that it might be better to find a way to cool the brain without cooling entire body, which may reduce the blood supply to organs and lead to the formation of dangerous blood clots. Yet stroke researcher said Dale Corbett of Memorial University in St. Johns, Newfoundland " it is enough here to suggest that more trials should be undertaken. "
Related Sites
A fact sheet on the stroke of the American Heart Association
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