I couldn't tell which phase of testing this was on, but I liked the fact this was an oral drug. They don't give any suggested reason for this effect so that's a failure on their part.
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-hormonal-treatment.html
Stroke patients treated who received hormonal treatment,
combined with rehabilitation, performed better on functioning and
reasoning tests than patients who received rehabilitative therapy alone,
a new clinical study from Italy shows. The results to be presented at
The Endocrine Society's 94th Annual Meeting in Houston.
In the United States, stroke is the fourth-leading cause of death.
The disease occurs when a blood vessel to the brain either ruptures (hemorrhagic stroke), or is obstructed by a clot during an ischemic stroke, which is the most common type. Inadequate blood flow prevents oxygen from reaching parts of the brain, which can lead to tissue death and serious long-term disability.
The hormone, relaxin, or RLX, is a naturally occurring protein produced by the reproductive organs
in men and women, although only women have circulating hormone in the
blood, both during ovulation and pregnancy. For years after its
discovery in 1926 by the renowned zoologist and reproductive
endocrinologist Frederick Hisaw, the hormone's primary role was thought
to be that of relaxing the uterus and pelvis for childbirth.
More recently, however, research from this study's investigators, as
well as others, has demonstrated that the hormone also helps many
different organs and bodily processes prepare for pregnancy. These
include the heart and blood vessels, or cardiovascular system; lungs;
kidneys; mammary glands; as well as the immune system.
"Considering the present clinical results and our previous
experimental studies, we believe that RLX is a very important, if not
the most important, cardiovascular hormone," said study author Mario
Bigazzi, M.D. an internist at Prosperius Institute, in Florence, Italy.
"We believe that the presence of relaxin in women's blood at each
ovulation represents the still-undiscovered factor protecting them from
cardiovascular diseases during the fertile span of life until the
menopause. This may assure their well-known longer survival time than
men."
Twenty days after beginning treatment, patients who received relaxin
performed comparably to non-recipients on a test measuring daily-task
ability. On a similar test 40 days after initial treatment, however,
relaxin patients performed better than their non-relaxin counterparts.
Both groups also received rehabilitative therapy.
Similarly, relaxin recipients scored higher than other patients on
tests of reasoning and overall functioning, both at 20 and 40 days after
starting treatment. No side effects associated with relaxin were
reported during the study.
According to Bigazzi, these results demonstrate relaxin's tremendous
promise to treat, and even prevent, heart and blood-vessel diseases,
including stroke. "We anticipate that, in the near future RLX, will
represent an essential tool in the therapy and primary and secondary
prevention of ischemic cardiovascular disease," he said.
Thirty-six patients who had suffered a stroke participated in the study. Patients ranged in age from 64 to 79 years, and 53 percent were male.
Each participant was randomly assigned to receive daily treatment
with oral relaxin, combined with physical rehabilitation, or physical
rehabilitation alone. Investigators then used standardized tests to
determine patients' functioning in three domains, including daily
activity, reasoning, and overall functioning. These assessments occurred
on the first day of the study, then again at 20 and 40 days.
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