A new global trial is underway to find the first proven treatment for haemorrhagic stroke.
The FASTEST trial, led by researchers at University of Cincinnati, will examine whether the drug can ‘plug the leak’ of bleeding in the brain.
The drug is made using a natural clotting protein that our bodies make to seal wounds.
Joseph Broderick, MD, professor in UC’s Department of Neurology and Rehabilitation Medicine in the College of Medicine, said:
“[The drug is] one of the important proteins our body uses to stop the bleeding.
“The idea here is to give it in enough of a dose that it actually can stop the leaking from small arteries in the brain.”
The trial will enrol more than 800 patients in approximately 100 sites across the US, Japan, Canada and Europe.
As haemorrhagic strokes are much less common than ischemic strokes and the drug needs to be delivered within two hours, Broderick estimates that it will take about five years to recruit all the patients.
To meet the two-hour timeframe, the trial will use mobile stroke units staffed with stroke professionals, brain imagine and medicine to deliver treatment to patients wherever they are.
“It’s a whole team that’s essentially bringing an emergency department to your doorstep, whether it’s at work or home or wherever,” Broderick said of mobile stroke units.
“It really does decrease the time from onset of symptoms to when you’re able to deliver treatment. I had a patient recently where we imaged the patient’s brain in the mobile stroke unit and started treatment within 35 minutes from stroke onset. That’s really fast.”
The first patient was enrolled over the weekend at Ottawa Hospital in Canada.
Brett Kissela, MD, is senior associate dean for clinical research in UC’s College of Medicine.
The researcher noted that, while rare, haemorrhagic strokes are often fatal, and those patients who do survive face poor outcomes.
Kissela said:
“The FASTEST trial will help us to find ways to minimize damage after a haemorrhage in the brain has occurred, thus leading to better outcomes for patients if they are unlucky enough to have an intracerebral haemorrhage.”
