Public release date: 7-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: Stephanie Desmon sdesmon@jhmi.edu 410-955-8665 Johns Hopkins Medicine In an update to previous research, Johns Hopkins neurologists say minimally invasive delivery of the drug tPA directly into potentially lethal blood clots in the brain helped more patients function independently a year after suffering an intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), a deadly and debilitating form of stroke. Rates of functional recovery with the active tPA treatment far surpassed those achieved with standard "supportive" therapy that essentially gives clots a chance to shrink on their own. In the current Johns Hopkins-led study, ICH patients who randomly received the minimally invasive surgery to deliver a drug designed to dissolve their golf ball-sized clots went home from the hospital an average of 38 days sooner than those receiving supportive therapy. In addition to the health benefits, the tPA therapy, and resulting shortened hospital stay, led to a savings of an estimated $44,000 per patient, the researchers say. ICH has long been considered surgically untreatable under most circumstances; roughly 50 percent of people who have such a stroke die from it. "This is the most promising treatment that has come along in the last 30 or 40 … Continue reading →

Feb. 7, 2013 Mild traumatic brain injury (TBI), including concussion, is one of the most common types of neurological disorder, affecting approximately 1.3 million Americans annually. It has received more attention recently because of its frequency and impact among two groups of patients: professional athletes, especially football players; and soldiers returning from mid-east conflicts with blast-related TBI. An estimated 10 to 20 percent of the more than 2 million U.S. soldiers deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan have experienced TBI. A recent study by psychiatrists from the Iowa City VA Medical Center and University of Iowa Health Care finds that soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with mild TBI have measurable abnormalities in the white matter of their brains when compared to returning veterans who have not experienced TBI. These abnormalities appear to be related to the severity of the injury and are related to cognitive deficits. The findings were published online in December in the American Journal of Psychiatry. "In the military population we studied, patients with TBI have more alterations, sometimes called 'potholes,' in the white matter of their brains than patients without a history of TBI," says senior study author Ricardo Jorge, M.D., UI professor of psychiatry. "The … Continue reading →

Groundbreaking new treatment dissolves 'golf ball-sized' clots Patients who use drugs had less disability a year later, study says Clots removed in 50 per cent of patients given medication, compared to just 5 per cent receiving standard care By Jenny Hope PUBLISHED: 20:26 EST, 7 February 2013 | UPDATED: 02:58 EST, 8 February 2013 Groundbreaking: New treatment which sees drugs inserted in the brain of stroke victims could help thousands who suffer a brain haemorrhage (file picture Surgeons are inserting drugs in the brain of stroke victims to dissolve golf ball-sized clots in a groundbreaking new treatment. The technique could help thousands of patients who suffer a bleeding stroke, or brain haemorrhage, for which there is currently no surgical treatment. A study shows that clots were removed in 50 per cent of patients given medication directly into the brain, compared with just 5 per cent of patients receiving standard care. Patients having surgery using clot-buster drugs had significantly less disability a year later, according to research presented at the American Stroke Associations annual conference. Bleeding strokes in the brain affect one in seven stroke victims in the UK about 20,000 a year and occur when a weakened blood vessel in … Continue reading →