Grant: Project Grant

Stroke occurs when there is a blockage of a brain artery which stops blood flow causing brain damage and disability. Rapid removal of the blockage with micro instruments, a procedure called endovascular therapy (EVT), has been shown to dramatically improve the functional outcome of patients with stroke. However, despite the procedure being very successful in terms of removing the blockages in the blood vessels, still 50% of patients do not recover well. There are many reasons for poor clinical outcome despite restoration of blood flow. Even in patients with small stroke, a substantial number do poorly. Animal studies suggest that under certain conditions, restoring blood flow can actually make brain damage worse. In current research, we have shown in acute stroke study treated by EVT using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) that one potential explanation is that when blood flow is restored to the stroke damage continues to grow. To address this problem, in the REPERFUSE NA1 study, we ask the question: Can we improve on stroke outcomes following endovascular treatment by reducing the growth of stroke damage that occurs following the successful restoration of blood flow with EVT? In this study using MRI we aim to show the effect of a promising a new brain protection treatment NA1 on reducing the brain damage following stroke treated by EVT. MRI will measure early infarct growth by measuring brain damage immediately after treatment and the following day, and the delayed infarct growth that occurs over 3 months. The REPERFUSE NA1 study will provide an important step to establishing whether brain protective treatment NA1 can work together with EVT to help reduce the growth of stroke related brain damage and improve stroke recovery.