Deans' stroke musings: YOUR HEALTH: Using stem cells to help stroke victims fully recover

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.

Tuesday, April 17, 2018

YOUR HEALTH: Using stem cells to help stroke victims fully recover

I bet your doctor didn't tell you about signing up for this research trial, probably didn't even know about it.
http://wqad.com/2018/04/16/your-health-using-stem-cells-to-help-stroke-victims-fully-recover/

MIAMI, Florida – Julian Fowles was a busy entertainment lawyer who loved to dance.

"My wife just loves to salsa."

But the music stopped when Julian had a stroke about five years ago.

"I lost use of my legs and left arm, my face fell."

Experts say the effects of a stroke can be reversed if the patient gets to the hospital within a 24 hour window. Julian didn't seek help till the next day.

"Speech can be slurred or lost, eyesight can be affected," said Dr. Dileep Yavagal, director of Interventional Neurology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

Now there's new hope using stem cells.

"These are the building blocks of our bodies," explained Dr. Yavagal.

Researchers at the University of Miami are conducting a clinical trial, injecting stem cells from healthy donors into the damaged areas of patients' brains.

It`s called the ACTIsSIMA trial. patients should be between the ages of 18 and 85 and suffered a stroke in the previous six months to seven and a half years. There are 60 clinical sites across the country including Peoria's OSF St. Francis Hospital.

"That we can actually get the brain to start to heal, regenerate neurons, and for the first time produce improvement in these patient`s symptoms," said Dr. Jonathan Jagid, a neurological surgeon at the University of Miami.

The minimally invasive procedure is done through a one inch incision in the skull.

"With the idea that the cells will stimulate repair of the stroke area," said Dr. Yavagal.

And strengthen weak limbs.

CURRENT TREATMENT: There are two different kinds of stroke, ischemic or hemorrhagic and this will determine the best emergency treatment for the patient. To treat ischemic stroke, blood flow must be quickly restored to the brain. To treat a hemorrhagic stroke, focus is on controlling the bleeding and reducing pressure in the brain. Surgery may also be performed to help reduce future risk. A current option for treatment within the first 24 hour window after a stroke is a thrombectomy; however, only fifty percent of all stroke patients are eligible for this treatment and over fifty percent of the patients who get the procedure still remain dependent. (Source: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/stroke/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20350119)

Julian had the procedure last July. Because it's a double blind study, he doesn't know whether he got the stem cells or not.

"I'm looking forward to some change.

He says he's feeling stronger every day, rowing as part of his rehab. He hopes the stem cells are helping him and, some day, others recovering from stroke.

If this story has impacted your life or prompted you or someone you know to seek or change treatments, please let us know by contacting Jim Mertens at jim.mertens@wqad.com or Marjorie Bekaert Thomas at mthomas@ivanhoe.com.