SA breakthrough in treatment for stroke
An Adelaide university researcher has found a way to reduce brain swelling – the most common cause of death after a stroke – which could increase chances of surviving a stroke and reducing the risk of long-term disability.
Testing has shown that swelling in the brain appeared to mimic a process in the skin and could respond to drug treatment, according to Renee Turner, a Phd student from Adelaide University.
She said the discovery had the potential to provide the first new clinical pathway to reducing brain swelling in 50 years of research.
The World Health Organisation recorded 11, 730 deaths from stroke in 2002, and about 48,000 strokes occur each year. Of the 15 million people worldwide who suffer a stroke each year, about 5 million are left permanently disabled.
Ms Turner’s research using rats, has been able to block a substance ‘P’ to reduce swelling after a stroke, but that the treatment – normally used for treatment of nausea and other ailments – was at the beginning of a long process before it could be approved for use by human stroke sufferers. This could take 5 to 10 years.
Ms Turner said the potential benefits of the discovery were great as it could be applied all over the world. “In the US there was a stroke approximately every minute, and every 3 ½ minutes someone dies,” she said.
