Successful publication of the Stroke research program

A scientific article on the use of thrombectomy in patients with minor stroke, published in the journal Neurology (the official journal of the American Society of Neurology), has aroused great interest among the professional public. The work entitled Thrombectomy vs medical management in low NIHSS acute anterior circulation stroke was placed in the Top 5 according to the Altmetric Attention Score.

Thrombectomy is an interventional procedure through the arterial bed, during which a blood clot in a cerebral vessel is localized and aspirated using a special catheter and a basket (stent). “It is a highly effective method of treating patients with moderate to severe stroke,” said the first author of the work, MUDr. Ondrej Volny Ph.D., researcher of the Cerebrovascular Research Team FNUSA-ICRC and Faculty of Medicine of Masaryk University in Brno. “In our study, which is the result of an international collaboration, we focused on using this method in patients with a low NIHSS score.”

NIHSS is a standardized neurological scale that objectively expresses the severity of neurological impairment in a stroke. “In patients with a low NIHSS score and large cerebral artery occlusion, which we focused on in this study, we do not have enough data (so-called evidence) that it is safe and effective. In addition, prospective randomized studies are still lacking, “added Dr. Volny.

The results of an international study of 236 patients showed that thrombectomy in patients with ischemic stroke with large vessel occlusion and low neurological deficit as assessed by the NIHSS scale was associated with a higher risk of neurological deterioration after 24 hours. “However, both standard (drug) treatment and mechanical thrombectomy led to the same clinical outcome after three months, which is the standard of clinical evaluation of a patient after a stroke,” stressed Dr. Ondrej Volny.