Anti-Stroke Drug Reduces Mortality and Disability Risk of Intraventricular Hemorrhage

Breakthrough Phase III trial results of a clot-busting drug have revealed its potential to reduce intraventricular hemorrhage and the chances of developing disability associated with the condition.An intraventricular hemorrhage is a severe //form of stroke leading to clotting of blood in the brain’s ventricles. The condition has no treatment and the affected individuals have very less survival chances. This type of stroke also leads to disability.

Researchers from the Johns Hopkins University and the University of Chicago conducted the CLEAR III clinical trial among 500 patients. They used a clot-busting drug called alteplase, also known as tPA to check its potential in reducing blood clots. One group of patients were administered tPA through a brain catheter while another group was given saline through the catheter.

The patients received the tPA for three days and a catheter continually drained blood until the ventricle got cleared. They found that tPA reduced the death rates by 10% and almost doubled the survival chances of patients who had most of the blood removed.

They also found that the more blood was cleared, the odds of developing post-stroke disability reduced among the patients. The results nearly doubled in patients who had 90 percent of their clots removed.

“Hemorrhage in the brain used to be an essentially untreatable condition, but we now have hope with a therapy that may be effective at saving lives,” said Dr.Issam Awad, John Harper Seeley Professor of Surgery at the University of Chicago Medicine, who was co-chair and surgical director for the CLEAR III clinical trial.

Source-Medindia