Stroke; a journal of cerebral circulation
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Amitriptyline in the prophylaxis of central poststroke pain. Preliminary results of 39 patients in a placebo-controlled, long-term study.
We performed a double-blind, placebo-controlled study to investigate the effectiveness of amitriptyline for the prophylactic treatment of patients with acute thalamic stroke in preventing central poststroke pain. ⋯ With the achieved sample sizes of this study and a pain rate of approximately 21% in the placebo group, any near-perfect pain protection would have been detected. Near-perfect pain protection, in this context, refers to pain in <2.4% of the recruited patients treated with amitriptyline or in approximately 89% of placebo-treated patients. Larger studies are recommended to test the hypothesis that prophylactic amitriptyline reduces but does not completely prevent central poststroke pain.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Clinical Trial
AMPA antagonist ZK200775 in patients with acute ischemic stroke: possible glial cell toxicity detected by monitoring of S-100B serum levels.
S-100B and neuron-specific enolase (NSE) serum concentrations can be used as peripheral markers of glial cell and neuronal damage, respectively. We investigated these markers in a clinical trial with the alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazole propionate (AMPA) antagonist ZK200775 in acute ischemic stroke patients. ⋯ The AMPA antagonist ZK200775 transiently worsened the neurological condition in patients with acute ischemic stroke. Our results suggest that in addition to neuronal dysfunction, glial cell toxicity may have occurred. It may be useful to introduce monitoring of serum markers of brain damage in phase 2 trials with glutamate receptor antagonists.