Multicentre clinical trial for hypothermia treatment of stroke patients obtains funding

The European Stroke Research Network for Hypothermia (EuroHYP) is to perform a large, multicentre clinical trial which will assess mild hypothermia as a novel treatment for ischæmic stroke. The trial has received European Union funding with a total project cost of 14 970 000 €.
Stroke is the second cause of death worldwide and the second cause of lost disability-adjusted life years in high-income countries. Current treatment options for the 80 to 85% of all strokes due to cerebral ischæmia - around 900 000 events in Europe every year, or one every 40 seconds - are extremely limited. Systematic review of experimental studies suggests that hypothermia is the most promising intervention identified to date. Cooling has so far been tried on stroke patients only in a few relatively small studies, and this study involving over 1500 patients will be designed to establish cooling as part of the standard treatment for patients with acute ischæmic stroke.
Dignitana AB has developed technology used to provide selective cooling of the brain with a view to lowering the brain temperature without lowering the body temperature more than marginally and recommends application of cooling in an early phase following stroke in order to avoid potentially dangerous consequences for the immune system and a greater risk of bleeding and infection.
The results of the clinical trial are expected to form the reference for cooling of stroke patients as part of the standard treatment.