HATFIELD, England, July 11, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Eisai Europe Limited today announces the Swissmedic approval of Inovelon (rufinamide) oral suspension for adjunctive (add-on) treatment of seizures associated with Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome (LGS) in patients over the age of 4 years in Switzerland. Many patients who receive the orphan drug rufinamide are children, partially disabled, and this new formulation has been developed as a child-friendly, orange-flavoured drinkable liquid to aid the administration of treatment for this rare, severe form of epilepsy. "Drinkable medicines can be particularly useful for children who find conventional tablets difficult to swallow. The rufinamide suspension formulation will provide patients, parents and caretaker with a new choice of method of administration which could result in better treatment adherence, " said Dr Klaus Meyer from Bethesda Tschugg Clinic, Switzerland. "Improving treatment compliance, especially for patients with this severe form of epilepsy, is an important step to help them manage their seizures." LGS is a rare form of epilepsy accounting for five percent of all cases and rising to approximately 10 percent of childhood therapy resistant epilepsy cases.[1] The annual incidence of the condition affects about 2.8 per 10,000 births in Europe.[1] Effective LGS management and compliance to treatment is of … Continue reading →

HATFIELD, England, July 11, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The European Medicines Agency (EMA)has acceptedthesubmission by Eisai of an application to extend the use of adjunctive epilepsy treatment Zonegran (zonisamide) in the treatment of partial seizures (with or without secondary generalisation) to include children aged six years and above. A decision on this new licence extension application is expected in September 2012. This submission was based on data from the double-blind, randomised, multicentre, placebo-controlled Phase III CATZ study, which showed that zonisamide is more effective than placebo, and well tolerated in paediatric epilepsy patients (6-17 years) with partial-onset seizures treated with one or two other anti-epileptic drugs.[1] Specifically, results showed that significantly more patients responded positively to treatment with zonisamide (50.5%) versus treatment with placebo (31.0%).[1] Safety and tolerability assessments showed that the overall incidence of treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs) was similar for zonisamide (55.1%) versus placebo (50.0%). There were low rates of serious TEAEs in the zonisamide and placebo groups (3.7% vs 2.0%) and TEAEs leading to withdrawal from the study (0.9% vs 3.0%).[1] Zonisamide is a second generation anti-epileptic drug (AED) with multiple mechanisms of action and a chemical structure unrelated to other AEDs, which means it is unlikely to … Continue reading →

Editor's Choice Academic Journal Main Category: Stroke Also Included In: Neurology / Neuroscience Article Date: 10 Jul 2012 - 10:00 PDT Current ratings for: Weekend Stroke Patients Fare Worse Than Weekday Ones There is even a term for the apparent difference in a patient's chances of receiving full care during weekends; it is called the weekend effect. Lead author, William L. Palmer, MA, MSc, and team wrote that the weekend effect challenges the statement made by many regarding the equality of care patients receive when being hospitalized, irrespective of when this occurs. Palmer and team set out to find out whether a stroke patient's access to the hospital's best and safest stroke care varies depending on whether he/she was admitted on a weekday or weekend. They carried out a retrospective cohort study of 93,621 patients, in England, who had been hospitalized with stroke from 1st April, 2009 to the end of March, 2010. The team gathered data on which day patients were hospitalized and compared six indicators of stroke care, including hospital discharge, 30-day readmission rates, availability of brain scans, availability of clot treatments (thrombolysis), seven-day mortality, and complications. Of these 93,621 stroke patients, irrespective of day of admittance to … Continue reading →

Study Highlights: EMBARGOED UNTIL 3 pm CT/4 pm ET, Tuesday, July 10, 2012 DALLAS, July 10, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Treatment is delivered faster when emergency medical services (EMS) personnel notify hospitals a possible stroke patient is en route, yet pre-notification doesn't occur nearly one-third of the time. That's according to two separate Get With The Guidelines(R)-- Stroke program studies published in American Heart Association journals. The American Heart Association/American Stroke Association recommends EMS notify hospitals of incoming stroke patients to allow stroke teams to prepare for prompt evaluation and treatment. Quick response is vital for stroke patients, particularly those with ischemic stroke, when a clot cuts off the blood supply to a portion of the brain. Clot-busting drugs can only be given within a limited time -- three to 4.5 hours after the onset of symptoms. For both studies, researchers examined the records of 371,988 acute ischemic stroke patients transported by EMS to one of 1,585 hospitals participating in the Get With The Guidelines--Stroke quality improvement program between 2003 and 2011. Pre-notification of hospital by EMS resulted in faster diagnosis and treatment for stroke patients, according to the study published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality & Outcomes. Pre-notification was independently … Continue reading →

LOS ANGELES, July 10 (UPI) -- Treatment is faster when paramedics tell hospitals a possible stroke patient is en route, but this doesn't occur one-third of the time, U.S. researchers say. The American Heart Association/American Stroke Association both recommend emergency medical services notify hospitals of incoming stroke patients because quick response is vital for stroke patients, particularly those with ischemic stroke, when a clot cuts off the blood supply to a portion of the brain. Clot-busting drugs can only be given within a limited time -- 3 to 4 1/2 hours after the onset of symptoms -- researchers said. The researchers examined the records of 371,988 acute ischemic stroke patients transported by EMS to one of 1,585 hospitals participating in the Get With The Guidelines -- Stroke quality improvement program from 2003 to 2011. Pre-notification occurred in 67 percent of patients in 2011, a modest increase from the 58 percent in 2003, the study said. Pre-notification was independently associated with better treatment times for faster imaging, treatment of clot-busting drug tPA within 60 minutes on arrival and more eligible patients treated with tPA. "Despite national guidelines recommending pre-notification by EMS for acute stroke patients, it's disappointing that there's been little … Continue reading →