Stroke; a journal of cerebral circulation
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Variation in the outcome after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) is not fully explained by known prognostic factors. APOE genotype is the most important genetic determinant of susceptibility to Alzheimer's disease, and it is also shown to be associated with the outcome after traumatic brain injury. We studied the association of apolipoprotein E polymorphism with the outcome after aneurysmal SAH. ⋯ Our findings show a significant genetic association of APOE polymorphism with outcome after spontaneous aneurysmal SAH. Genetic factors thus seem to explain a part of individual differences in the recovery of SAH.
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Comparative Study
Incidence and significance of early aneurysmal rebleeding before neurosurgical or neurological management.
Rebleeding is a major cause of death and disability in aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH); however, there has been no report focusing on rebleeding before hospitalization in neurosurgical or neurological institutions. The aim of this study was to clarify the incidence of prehospitalization rebleeding, its impact on the clinical course and prognosis in patients with aneurysmal SAH, and the possible factors inducing it. ⋯ Rebleeding during transfer and at the referring hospital is not rare. To improve overall outcome of aneurysmal SAH, the results obtained in this study should be made available to general practitioners and the doctors devoted to emergency medicine.
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Insulin-like growth factor (IGF) treatment has been shown to have trophic and neuroprotective effects in vitro and in vivo in different lesion models. IGF-I has potent neuroprotective effects after hypoxic-ischemic injury and global ischemia. The role of IGF-I in focal cerebral ischemia is only partially understood. Therefore, in the present study, we evaluated, by applying MRI monitoring, whether a clinically relevant systemic administration of IGF-I can achieve a long-lasting neuroprotective effect. ⋯ Continuous treatment with intraventricularly and subcutaneously administered IGF-I achieved a long-lasting neuroprotective effect as early as 24 hours after ischemia as measured by MRI. Therefore, IGF-I may represent a new approach to the treatment of focal cerebral ischemia.
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The penumbra of ischemic stroke consists of hypoperfused, but not irreversibly damaged, tissue surrounding the ischemic core. The purpose of this study was to determine viability thresholds in the ischemic penumbra, defined as the perfusion/diffusion mismatch in hyperacute stroke, by the use of diffusion- and perfusion-weighted MRI (DWI and PWI, respectively). ⋯ The thresholds found in this study by combined DWI/PWI might aid in the selection of patients suitable for therapeutic intervention within 6 hours. However, these hypothesized thresholds need to be prospectively tested at the voxel level on a larger patient sample before they can be applied clinically.