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Treatments for Stroke: Looking Forward and Looking Back by Gregory SmythThe disease burden of stroke is enormous in society, with stroke recovery forming a significant part of medical expenses for taxpayers, and the condition having an extreme impact on many people’s quality of life. The treatments for stroke have progressed over the years, from simple treatments with drugs, to more complicated surgery techniques, including cranial surgery, and keyhole surgery to assist stroke recovery.Now one of the most important advances in treatment has come about – stem cell therapy for strokes, which may allow the reformation of damaged brain tissue, which was previously unrecoverable. Stroke recovery is an impotant medical issue, affecting millions of people worldwide. Ischemic stroke is one of the more common types of this condition, and occurs when a thrombus, or blood clot, stops blood supply to an area of the brain. This blood clot may have formed due to cardiovascular disease, including in response to a heart attack. Thrombolysis used to be the first line of treatment after stroke for stroke recovery, which involves breaking the clot. Removing it mechanically, or performing a thrombectomy, was also a popular option.Drugs such as aspirin are often used in stroke recovery – however they do not actually restore the function of brain cells like stem cell therapy for stroke, or indeed do anything much to the existing clot or blockage. However, they do help to minimize clot enlargement and prevent new clots from forming, which is a real danger after stroke for patients. Control of blood sugars is also important in stroke recovery and management, as well as oxygenation to ensure that parts of the brain with limited blood supply have sufficient oxygen. Blood pressure is usually elevated immediately after stroke, however in this instance it is needed to allow good blood flow to the brain. However, the most exciting advances in stem cell therapy and stroke recovery come in the form of multipotent adult stem cells, that would help limit ischemic injury, as well as restore blood flow to the brain and neural circuits by differentiating themselves. These cells can differentiate into vascular and neural cells, and in vivo, they can help reconstitute damaged tissues. There has been much stem cell research on their use in stroke recovery. Studies often look first at the key molecular events that define differentiation, and then evaluate the pre-clinical efficacy of adult stem cells or cells that have been created from these human adult stem cells, in stroke patients. Studies are currently concentrating on producing somatic cell lines that will help in stroke recovery. These types of cells have already partially differentiated themselves, and in stem cell therapy for stroke they are preferable to the more debated embryonic stem cells as embryonic ones have been linked to tumor formation. Most researchers believe that somatic cells are the safest sort to use. Patented technologies have been developed by some stem cell research companies, to generate the lines. However, it is important that the clonal stem lines are stable – otherwise unforeseen problems may occur, that would be worse than the stroke damage itself. ReturningHope.com – is an interdisciplinary group of individuals who have pooled their expertise together in order provide a service to patients globally and that will find them the best treatment method for their conditions.Article Source: eArticlesOnline.com