Cerebrovascular disease is the second leading cause of death in developed countries and accounts for high rates of disability. Current therapies for ischemic stroke [tissue plasminogen activator (tPA)] fail to benefit many victims due to the constraints of time to intervention, the significant incidence of treatment-associated hemorrhage, and the limited therapeutic effect of thrombolysis. Our long-term goal is to improve public health by developing ischemic stroke treatment approaches that overcome the limitations of current treatments. Guidelines for treatment currently focus on either (a) intravenous thrombolytic therapy within 3 hours of stroke onset or (b) intra-arterial mechanical intervention/thrombolysis within 6 hours. It has been recently shown in animal models that thrombolytic therapy may be enhanced by the addition of ultrasound. Furthermore, we hypothesize that combining ultrasound with intravenously injected microbubbles may facilitate mechanical disruption of thrombi in intracranial circulation without resulting in treatment-associated hemorrhage. We propose a pilot study that uses a rabbit model of acute embolic stroke to compare the utility of an intervention consisting of either 1] tPA treatment alone, 2] intravenously injected microbubbles with trans-cranial ultrasound, or 3] tPA treatment combined with microbubbles and ultrasound. We will explore the safety and efficacy of these various treatments for lysing three types of clots: fresh clots that simulate secondary clots associated with acute emboli during the window of therapeutic opportunity in ischemic stroke (Specific Aim 1), aged clots that are more typical of embolic clots that may not be fresh (Specific Aim 2), and insoluble embolic material more typical of atheromata (Specific Aim 3). Our ultimate objective for this pilot study is to test the refinement of novel treatments for embolic stroke that would yield a safe, simple, fast and successful therapy that can be further examined in future funded research projects and eventually applied in the clinical realm. Our proposed pilot study will determine which of these treatments is most successful, and future studies will further explore that treatment.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01HL082481-03
Application #
7352801
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZHL1-CSR-H (O1))
Program Officer
Kindzelski, Andrei L
Project Start
2006-02-15
Project End
2011-01-31
Budget Start
2008-02-01
Budget End
2009-01-31
Support Year
3
Fiscal Year
2008
Total Cost
$385,638
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
Department
Radiation-Diagnostic/Oncology
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
122452563
City
Little Rock
State
AR
Country
United States
Zip Code
72205
Woods, S D; Skinner, R D; Ricca, A M et al. (2013) Progress in dodecafluoropentane emulsion as a neuroprotective agent in a rabbit stroke model. Mol Neurobiol 48:363-7
Brown, Aliza; Woods, Sean; Skinner, Robert et al. (2013) Neurological assessment scores in rabbit embolic stroke models. Open Neurol J 7:38-43
Culp, William C; Woods, Sean D; Brown, Aliza T et al. (2013) Three variations in rabbit angiographic stroke models. J Neurosci Methods 212:322-8
Agarwal, A; Khan, M S; Aduli, F et al. (2012) Mesenteric vein thrombosis treated successfully with ultrasound augmented thrombolysis. Acta Gastroenterol Belg 75:55-7
Culp, William C; Woods, Sean D; Skinner, Robert D et al. (2012) Dodecafluoropentane emulsion decreases infarct volume in a rabbit ischemic stroke model. J Vasc Interv Radiol 23:116-21
Borrelli, Michael J; O'Brien Jr, William D; Hamilton, Eric et al. (2012) Influences of microbubble diameter and ultrasonic parameters on in vitro sonothrombolysis efficacy. J Vasc Interv Radiol 23:1677-1684.e1
Borrelli, Michael J; O'Brien Jr, William D; Bernock, Laura J et al. (2012) Production of uniformly sized serum albumin and dextrose microbubbles. Ultrason Sonochem 19:198-208
Caldwell, Brian; Flores, Rene; Lowery, John et al. (2011) Variations in the circle of Willis in the New Zealand white rabbit. J Vasc Interv Radiol 22:1188-92
Woods, Sean D; Flores, Rene; Roberson, Paula K et al. (2011) Decreased Serum Levels of S-100B Protein Reflect Successful Treatment Effects in a Rabbit Model of Acute Ischemic Stroke. Open Neurol J 5:55-7
Culp, William C; Flores, Rene; Brown, Aliza T et al. (2011) Successful microbubble sonothrombolysis without tissue-type plasminogen activator in a rabbit model of acute ischemic stroke. Stroke 42:2280-5

Showing the most recent 10 out of 16 publications