Island stroke patients to be part of worldwide study on drug that busts up blood clots
CBC
Some stroke patients in Prince Edward Island will be part of a global study aimed at improving stroke outcomes — by finding the best way to use a blood-clot-busting drug to help patients in emergency situations.
Health P.E.I. is contributing to the study, which is looking at the most effective dosage of Tenecteplase. The drug is already used on the Island.
“We're trying to find out if a lower dose of this drug is safer but still does the good job of breaking up blood clots and rescuing a brain from a stroke,” said Dr. Heather Williams, a neurologist and the chair of Health P.E.I.’s stroke steering committee.
She said patients will be recruited for the study through emergency departments.
“If somebody comes in with a stroke and they're eligible for a clot-busting drug, then the emergency doctors will be calling me to see if patients are eligible for the trial," she said.
“If they are, we'll be treating them as quickly as possible so they get this potentially life-saving treatment, and then we'll be talking to them about the research after that emergency phase of their care has taken place.”
The study will also look at whether Tenecteplase can work for patients who are on blood thinners, and whether pairing it with a neuro-protective drug called NoNO-42 can help prevent brain cell death.
“What's happening during a stroke is that part of the brain is under a lot of stress and releasing toxins into the environment. And this NoNO-42 molecule helps to reduce the number of toxins that are being released by the brain,” Williams said.
“So we hope to save more brain cells by preserving their integrity while we're waiting for the blood flow to be restored.”
NoNO-42 has ties to Prince Edward Island: scientists at UPEI helped make it.
Dr. Andrew Tasker, professor emeritus of neuropharmacology at UPEI's Atlantic Veterinary College, was one of them.
“To know that we were part of it in the beginning and to have watched the evolution of the process, and now to see it on the verge of hopefully rendering some significant benefit to these patients and the families and their caregivers… it's great,” he said.
While NoNO-42 is still at the trial stage, Tasker said every indication so far has been positive.
“This is not going to completely stop [the effects of a stroke], but it may well save some people from dying who would have otherwise,” he said. “And it may well make them more functionally independent after their stroke.”
As his flight departed from Amsterdam's Schiphol airport en route to Kuwait via Istanbul, Canadian crypto fugitive Andean Medjedovic was unaware that his globe-trotting lifestyle would soon be halted.
One of the largest taxi companies in Toronto will be down to three wheelchair-accessible cabs by the end of March, as advocates and providers say the city is failing to support accessible taxi drivers.
As a deep freeze continues to envelop southwestern Ontario at the same time municipalities deal with a pressing shortage of road salt, there's a renewed focus on finding different ways to melt road ice.
Dave Lawson is a proud Canadian who has bumper stickers that say "Canada is not for sale." He's fed up with grocery products plastered with maple leaves and patriotic logos that turn out to be American imports.
The Town of Badger has issued an evacuation order for some residents as water levels on the Exploits River continue to rise.
The head of a national seniors' advocacy organization says protecting nursing home residents from sexual abuse is an important but challenging issue.
New data shows Winnipeg's fire-paramedic service fielded hundreds of reports involving the city's homeless population, but one advocate says she expects that number to go down in light of the city's limits on where encampments can be.
Former students of the Île-à-la-Crosse Boarding School have reached a settlement in their lawsuit against the federal government.
Missing baby presumed dead after father charged with killing mother in St. Albert, Alta., police say
A man is facing charges in the death of a young mother in the Edmonton area and the presumed death of their missing nine-month-old daughter.
A school trustee in Prince George, B.C., says she's shaken and scared after being surrounded by police with their guns drawn and then put in handcuffs, in what RCMP say was a case of mistaken identity.
Despite an eleventh hour attempt to secure at least a few more weeks of freedom, a Calgary dentist was handed a three-year prison sentence for a decade-long insurance billing fraud.
Canada Computers & Electronics says a data breach has leaked information about some of its customers, though several say they are unhappy with the scant details the retailer has provided — including how many of them were affected, and when the breach occurred.
The city of Toronto is shutting down a yacht club on the Humber River in Etobicoke that is accused of having negative impacts on the local ecosystem.