Hypothermia used as a neuroprotectant for treatment after an
acute stroke.
Article Link: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/744579
For the past few years researchers have been testing the
effects of hypothermia treatments to decrease damage caused by an acute stroke.
This method is done by intentionally inducing controlled reductions in a patient’s
core temperature to mild-moderate degrees of 30-34 degrees Celsius. Researchers
hypothesized that by inducing hypothermia, it will act effectively by inhibit
toxic effects and stimulating important repair mechanisms.
Patients who experience Ischemia are seen to undergo various
tissue damages such as apoptosis and cellular death, which are caused by
various ischemia-induced pathways. Based on the experiment animal studies performed
by the researchers, they believe that hypothermia can inhibit these detrimental
pathways caused by ischemia and thus reduce cellular injury. They concluded that hypothermia can inhibit
energy depletion, ion shifts, free radical formation, EAA release and
inflammation processes which would otherwise be detrimental to the human body.
Furthermore, it was noted that hypothermia reduces cerebral O2 consumption rate
by 6% per 1 degree Celsius. This was great news for researchers for brain
tissue could be preserved for longer periods of time.
Questions:
Do you think hypothermia is a viable option for treating
patients following an acute stroke?
What would you consider the pros and cons to be to this treatment?
Reviewing back to the article, based on the methods of
inducing hypothermia, what would you consider (based on your own thoughts) to
be the potential side effects or complications of hypothermia treatment? (without
reading further ahead into the article)
I previously wrote a blog about magnet therapy to treat
stroke. Would you find hypothermia treatment to be a better alternative to
treating stroke?
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWho would have thought of hypothermia as a good thing? Personally me, myself, and I would probably only use this method of treatment as last resort sort of deal. Or maybe once a little more research is completed and we can see some substantial proof that there are no long term seriously detrimental effects of this treatment then maybe I'd be open to it.
ReplyDeleteHypothermia can lead to serious muscle and organ damage. It can help shift apoptosis of cells but what if that isn't managed as effectively as needed? Even in a controlled environment I feel like it would be really hard to control a person's temperature at just that sweet spot where it's not too cold to be harmful but cold enough to actually be helpful. I definitely think that this is an area that with a little more development could be very beneficial to patients, I'm just not gonna be the first person to sign up for the human trials. :)
Nice post, Nicole!
I found an article that explained some of the down sides of possibly using hypothermia as protective mechanism. It said that hypothermia has no effect on the cerebral blood flow in the penumbra during ischemia, but can block hyperperfusion after ischemic insult. Hypothermia really only delays nerve damage; it doesn't provide permanent protection. It also discussed the fact that the most difficult thing about using hypothermia is knowing when, how long, and how deep to cool a person to produce optimal protection and recovery.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.jneuroinflammation.com/content/7/1/74
Great article Kelly! In my search online I really only found articles on how theraputic hypothermia treaments help patients instead of the problems that may arise. It was definitly interesting to read about the otherside of the spectrum! Furthermore, In response to cassie post, I was under the impression that they were already using this treatment on patients for either brain damage or after cardiac arrest to name a few. This being said I thought that they were past human trials and already employing this treatment. Am I wrong about this?
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