Colorado awarded more than $8 million for medical marijuana research Wednesday, a step toward addressing complaints that little is known about pot's medical potential. The grants awarded by the Colorado Board of Health will go to studies on whether marijuana helps treat epilepsy, brain tumors, Parkinson's disease and post-traumatic stress disorder. Some of the studies still need federal approval. Though the awards are relatively small, they represent a new frontier for marijuana research. That's because the Colorado grants will be spent to explore the drug's medical potential, not the health downsides of marijuana. "This is the first time we've had government money to look at the efficacy of marijuana, not the harms of marijuana," said Dr. Suzanne Sisley, a Scottsdale, Arizona, psychiatrist who will help run a study on marijuana for veterans with PTSD. Sisley plans to do her research in private practice after previously working for the University of Arizona. Federal approval to study marijuana's medical potential requires permission of the Food and Drug Administration, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the National Institute on Drug Abuse. And there's only one legal source of the weed, the Marijuana Research Project at the University of Mississippi. Twenty-three states and Washington, D.C., … Continue reading →

Stroke patients whose blocked arteries are re-opened with surgical devices fared better in a study than those treated with intravenous drugs alone to dissolve clots, offering the first solid evidence of an effective new treatment. In a trial of 500 Dutch patients with stroke caused by lack of blood flow in the brain, 33 percent had little or no disability 90 days after receiving the direct intervention, compared with 19 percent in the control group, according to an article published today in the New England Journal of Medicine. There was no increased risk of death following the treatments. Stroke is the fourth-leading cause of death in the U.S., killing almost 130,000 a year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The standard treatment for patients with ischemic stroke -- those caused by a blocked blood vessel instead of a hemorrhage -- has been limited to enzymes that dissolve clots administered intravenously, and is only effective in the first four and half hours after a stroke. While some doctors have treated the blockage directly, until now there have been no conclusive studies showing that works. The Dutch trial - called MR CLEAN, for Multicenter Randomized Clinical Trial of Endovascular … Continue reading →

Steven Reinberg HealthDay Reporter Posted: Wednesday, December 17, 2014, 12:00 PM WEDNESDAY, Dec. 17, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Using a stent to capture and remove a stroke-causing blood clot is safe and improves recovery, Dutch researchers report. About one-third of patients who had the procedure -- called intraarterial treatment -- recovered from their stroke with only slight disability and were able to care for themselves, compared with just 19 percent of patients given regular care, the researchers found. "We knew already that we can open up blocked vessels with the treatment, but now we have proof that patients have better outcomes, they actually benefit by being less disabled and less handicapped," said lead researcher Dr. Diederik Dippel, a neurologist at Erasmus M.C. University Medical Center in Rotterdam. Dippel stressed that to be effective this treatment must be done in the first six hours after stroke symptoms start. And, the sooner the better. Unlike stents used to open blocked heart arteries, which are left in place to keep the artery open, stents used in intraarterial treatment are removed, Dippel said. During intraarterial treatment, a stent -- a tiny wire mesh sleeve -- is attached to a catheter and threaded through the … Continue reading →

Going into the blocked artery of someone who is having a stroke to remove the clot is more likely to produce a good recovery than treatment with just clot-busting drugs, according to a study December 17, 2014 By Gene Emery Reuters Health - Going into the blocked artery of someone who is having a stroke to remove the clot is more likely to produce a good recovery than treatment with just clot-busting drugs, according to a study of 500 patients in the Netherlands. "Catching the clot and fishing it out of the blocked artery to reopen it makes a big difference in outcome," Dr. Jeffrey Saver, a director of the University of California Los Angeles Stroke Center, told Reuters Health. The devices to retrieve clots have been around for a while but until now we hadn't had a clinical trial showing that they made patients better." Ninety days after their strokes, 32.6 percent of patients whose treatment included going into a brain artery to remove a clot achieved functional independence, compared to 19.1 percent given only usual care with clot-dissolving drugs. The study, known as MR CLEAN and published online Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine, applies to … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 17-Dec-2014 Contact: Joni Ramirez joni@merrymancommunications.com 323-532-0746 Merryman Communications @betsymerryman ALAMEDA, Calif. - December 17, 2014 - Penumbra, Inc., the market leader in intra-arterial stroke treatment, announced that an independent study published online today in the New England Journal of Medicine found that intra-arterial stroke treatment, including the company's clot extraction technology, was shown to be significantly more effective than medical management with tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), which is the current standard of care. The findings of this randomized, controlled comparative effectiveness trial of stroke treatment have the potential to change the standard of care and improve functional independence for the 15 million stroke patients worldwide who currently have few treatment options. Intra-arterial treatment, also called endovascular or interventional treatment, involves working inside the artery to remove the clot. In the MR CLEAN (Multicenter Randomized Clinical trial of Endovascular treatment for Acute ischemic stroke in the Netherlands) comparative effectiveness study, intra-arterial treatment improved the rate of good functional outcome by 71 percent over treatment with medical management with tPA alone. Of patients who received intra-arterial treatment, 32.6% achieved a clinically defined positive stroke outcome compared with 19.1% of those who received medical management. Intra-arterial treatment was beneficial for … Continue reading →