Deans' stroke musings: Thrombosis Breakthrough May Lead To New Treatment Options

Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain! trillions and trillions of neurons that DIE each day because there are NO effective hyperacute therapies besides tPA(only 12% effective). I have 523 posts on hyperacute therapy, enough for researchers to spend decades proving them out. These are my personal ideas and blog on stroke rehabilitation and stroke research. Do not attempt any of these without checking with your medical provider. Unless you join me in agitating, when you need these therapies they won't be there.

What this blog is for:

My blog is not to help survivors recover, it is to have the 10 million yearly stroke survivors light fires underneath their doctors, stroke hospitals and stroke researchers to get stroke solved. 100% recovery. The stroke medical world is completely failing at that goal, they don't even have it as a goal. Shortly after getting out of the hospital and getting NO information on the process or protocols of stroke rehabilitation and recovery I started searching on the internet and found that no other survivor received useful information. This is an attempt to cover all stroke rehabilitation information that should be readily available to survivors so they can talk with informed knowledge to their medical staff. It lays out what needs to be done to get stroke survivors closer to 100% recovery. It's quite disgusting that this information is not available from every stroke association and doctors group.

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Thrombosis Breakthrough May Lead To New Treatment Options

Maybe eventually a better treatment than warfarin or pradaxa.
http://www.doctortipster.com/9500-thrombosis-breakthrough-may-lead-to-new-treatment-options.html
Researchers at the Institute for Cardiovascular and Metabolic Research (ICMR) at the University of Reading, have discovered the mechanism by which platelets bind together to form blood clots. This discovery, they say, can lay the foundation for new treatments to prevent stroke or heart attacks.
In healthy people, blood is always in a physiological fluid-coagulant equilibrium. In other words, when the endothelium is damaged, platelets and fibrinogen form a network plug that repair the defect and the bleeding stops. Then the network of fibrin is lysed and the blood vessel is recanalized. This process occurs continuously in the body. In certain diseases or conditions such hypercoagulability or atrial fibrillation, platelets aggregate together to form a thrombus that may obstruct imporant blood vessels. What researchers found is how platelets communicate with each other. It seems that platelets are interconnected by gap junctions, some pore-like structures. ‘Gap junction’ is a common type of connection to other cells, such as myocardial cells or neurons. Gap junctions are a special type of connection that interconnects the cytoplasm of two cells.
Thrombus

Professor Jonathan Gibbins and Dr. Sakthivel Vaiyapuri, said: “This appears to be a very important communication mechanism for blood clotting and thrombosis”. He added that by blocking those channels involved in the formation of junctions thrombosis can be reduced. The new discovery may be a target in antithrombotic therapy.
Currently, stroke is prevented by oral anticoagulant medication (warfarin) which inhibits the synthesis of coagulation factors dependent on vitamin K. This medication has several drawbacks. On the one hand, and patient dose should be adjusted by measuring the INR (International Normalised Ratio), on the other hand, there are plenty of side effects. Oral anticoagulants can cause bleeding and give drug interactions. It is important to note that the risk of bleeding is significantly increased when combined with anticoagulants such as clopidogrel antiplatelet or aspirin. In addition to this, anticoagulants are prohibited during pregnancy.
Anticoagulant medication is commonly prescribed in patients with cardiovascular disorders. Oral anticoagulants are prescribed long-term in patients with atrial fibrillation to prevent thromboembolic accidents. Because atria no longer contract, blood tends to clot and the formed thrombi can migrate into circulation and stroke can occur. Also, patients with metal valves need to follow long-term treatment with oral anticoagulants to prevent thrombosis.
Understanding the mechanisms underlying thrombosis may be a target for discovery of new anticoagulants. Dr. Vaiyapuri notes that this discovery is exciting even if their work is still not complete.