A clinical trial testing out a novel way to treat stroke patients that was conceived, designed and tested out by Canadian doctors has returnedwith promising results.
Canadian scientists out of the University of Calgary say their clot retrieval procedure, called endovascular treatment (ET), could be a game-changer for patients who turn up in hospital after a stroke.
The trials were run out of seven Canadian cities, along with hospitals in the U.S., Ireland and South Korea. Twenty-two sites half of which were inCanada were involved in the study.
What I think will happen is there will be a change in guidelines for acute ischemic stroke and [endovascular treatment] will become a standard way of treatment thatll be slowly implemented across the country and around the world, Dr. Mayank Goyal told Global News.
Hes one of the lead scientists for the clinical trial and a professor of radiology at the University of Calgary.
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His team is calling itsresults the most significant and fundamental change in acute ischemic stroke treatment in the past two decades.
Ischemic stroke is caused by a sudden blockage of an artery to the brain that deprives the brain of critical nutrients, such as glucose and oxygen. Most strokes are of this variety, Goyal says.
Right now, its treated by administering a drug called tPA when appropriate the drug is a clot buster and dissolves the blood clot.
Goyal says that endovascular treatment is relatively new ushered in around the 1990s and with a mixed bag of results. Some scientists testing their methodology have trouble with getting to the clot quickly and identifying the right patient for the procedure.
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Canadian research could pave the way to new stroke treatment