Andre Lavois realized almost immediately that he was having a stroke.
The 60-year-old Calgary man was helping his wife pick up groceries in 2015 when he dropped a box on the floor.
“I bent down to pick it up with my left hand and nothing happened to her. I couldn’t take it, “Lavois said in an interview with The Canadian Press.
“I said, ‘Oh my God.’ I’m having a stroke. Fortunately, this did not affect my judgment, and I went to my wife and said, “Call 911.”
Lavois said he was one of the lucky ones. His blood clot cleared on its own by the time the ambulance arrived, but months of headaches and anxiety followed.
He agreed to be part of a focus group at Foothills Medical Center, conducted by Cumming Medical School at the University of Calgary. This was part of a large study on the use of an established heart drug in stroke patients.
A study published Wednesday in the British medical journal The Lancet shows that Tenecteplase, commonly used as a means of destroying clots in heart attacks, is also an effective treatment for acute ischemic stroke – when blood flow through a cerebral artery is blocked by a clot.
The two-year study, which included the Sunnybrook Center for Health Sciences and the University of Toronto, included 1,600 patients in hospitals across Canada. This was the largest stroke clinical trial ever conducted in the country.
Dr. Bijoy Menon, a professor at the University of Calgary and a neurologist at Foothills Hospital, was the study’s lead researcher. He said the usual treatment is a drug called Alteplase, which is effective but more difficult to administer.
He said it takes up to an hour and requires an infusion pump to be monitored.
This is not the case with the heart drug, which is simply injected and takes effect almost immediately, Menon said.
“The big advantage would actually be the speed with which this can be delegated. This can be delegated really easily and quickly to people in rural hospitals, in ambulances, people even in large hospitals … everything is done very quickly, so this is the big advantage of this new drug.
“The time you put on make-up can really improve results.”
Menon said the findings could revolutionize stroke treatment and could also offer a cheaper option in middle- and lower-income countries.
“Tenecteplase is known to be an effective drug for dissolving clots. It’s very easy to administer, which makes it change the game when seconds are counted to save brain cells, “Menon said.
“When you treat your patients faster, they tend to do better and that saves lives.”
Lavoie said that when he shared his contribution in the focus group, he said that using heart medication in stroke patients was a good idea.
“When they said it was one injection and they could do it earlier than the other, I said, ‘God, don’t do research. Just do it, “he said with a smile.
“If I get another stroke, I know what to want.”
Menon said the drug had already been shown to be safe and that the results of the study expected months, not years, before it could be used regularly.
Carol Kenny, a coordinator of nurses in clinical trials, said the new drug would release nurses to provide additional treatment to patients once it is administered.
“We say time is a brain, so the sooner we treat patients, the better.”
“Bill Graveland, the Canadian press.”
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Heart health and stroke
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