International journal of stroke : official journal of the International Stroke Society
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Brazil has one of the highest cerebrovascular death rates in the Western Hemisphere. We investigated temporal trends according to gender and stroke subtypes. ⋯ Stroke mortality rates are declining in Brazil for all stroke subtypes.
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Comparing safety and technical success of balloon-expandable stents and self-expanding stents for intracranial angioplasty and stenting in medically refractory intracranial atherosclerotic disease in a single center series. ⋯ Despite a high technical success, the rate of clinical adverse events at 30 days after intracranial angioplasty and stenting is high independently of the stent design. Thus, further development of intracranial stent systems and careful patient selection are mandatory.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
A prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial about safety and efficacy of combined treatment with alteplase (rt-PA) and Cerebrolysin in acute ischaemic hemispheric stroke.
The neurotrophic drug Cerebrolysin accelerated recovery and prevented acute neuronal damage in preclinical models of ischaemia. Previous clinical trials support therapeutic effects in stroke patients. The study investigated whether the combination with alteplase and Cerebrolysin is safe and can further reduce disability after acute ischaemic stroke. ⋯ The combination of Cerebrolysin with recombinant tissue-Plasminogen Activator is safe for treatment of acute ischaemic stroke but did not improve outcome at day 90. During the treatment period with Cerebrolysin (10 days), significantly more patients had a favourable response in neurological outcome measures (National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale) as compared to the placebo group.