Laser therapy helps stroke victims

An experimental stroke treatment that sends laser beams into the brain may help patients with milder strokes lessen their crippling effects, says U.S. researchers.

Carlsbad, California-based PhotoThera Inc's NeuroThera Laser System failed to significantly lower stroke disability overall in 660 stroke patients in its first major clinical trial, the researchers wrote in the journal Stroke.

But patients with moderate to moderately severe strokes did improve after laser treatment, the researchers said.

Every day, 60 people die in South Africa because of strokes, says the Medical Research Council. It is the third most common cause of death and the leading cause of adult disabilities.

The only treatment approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the most common type of stroke, caused by a blood clot, is a clot-busting drug known as tissue plasminogen activator, or tPA, that must be given intravenously within three hours.

"We need something for patients who come in later than that," Dr. Justin Zivin of the University of California San Diego, who led the study funded by PhotoThera, said in a telephone interview.

What the study revealed
Doctors used the laser device to painlessly send low-energy infrared radiation into the brain, on average 14-1/2 hours after a stroke.

Ninety days later, 36 percent of those given the laser treatment had either mild or no disability compared to 31 percent of those not given the therapy, but the difference was not statistically significant, the researchers said.

Among those who had moderate to moderately severe strokes, 52 percent of those given the laser treatment had either mild or no disability compared to 42 percent of the others. That difference was statistically significant, Zivin said.

"We're very encouraged by it," added Zivin, whose study was presented at an American Stroke Association meeting.

Zivin, who has a financial stake in the company, said it is unclear exactly how the laser treatment may be helping the patient. It's possible the treatment is reducing cell death, increasing new cell growth and boosting energy metabolism. (Will Dunham/Reuters Health)

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February 2009