39p Drug Skin Patch Could 'Dramatically' Improve Stroke Survival

A skin patch could save thousands of lives by improving the chances of surviving a stroke, researchers have claimed.

The patch, which costs 39p, is applied to the shoulder or back and delivers a blood pressure-lowering drug through the skin while a patient is rushed to hospital.

Results from a small early trial suggest it could potentially halve the stroke death rate.

Each year in the UK an estimated 40,000 people die from stroke, making it one of the leading causes of death in the country.

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British Heart Foundation researcher Professor Philip Bath, from the University of Nottingham, said: “We believe that by improving blood flow in the brain in stroke patients we can dramatically improve their survival chances and recovery.

“This patch enables us to do this within minutes and early trials have been very promising.”

Strokes are generally caused by an artery clot or burst blood vessel, and often result in serious brain damage.

A quarter of patients who survive are permanently disabled.

The drug in the patch, glyceryl trinitrate (GTN), lowers blood pressure and opens up blood vessels.

This, in turn, may reduce the damage caused in the minutes and hours after a stroke.

An initial trial of the GTN patch involving 41 acute stroke patients in the East Midlands ambulance region showed it halved the death rate from 38% to 16%.

The findings were published in the journal Stroke.

More than 100,000 strokes occur in the UK each year, costing the NHS an estimated £2 billion.

Professor Sir Nilesh Samani, medical director at the British Heart Foundation, said: “If successful, this could revolutionise treatment for stroke patients across the UK, and potentially globally, and could be a huge step forward in the advancement of stroke treatment, which currently lags behind heart-attack treatment.”

Foods That Lower Stroke Risk

Chocolate(01 of06)

A Swedish study in the journal Neurology showed that eating chocolate is linked with a lower risk of stroke in men. The study, which included 37,103 men, showed that men who ate the most chocolate in the 10-year study had a 17 percent lower risk of stroke, compared with those who didn't report eating any chocolate during that time period. (credit:Alamy)

Whole Grains(02 of06)

Eating lots of whole grains could help to lower risk of ischemic stroke for women, according to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The findings showed that women who ate the most whole grains in the study (like the amount you'd get by eating two or three whole grain bread slices every day) had a 30 to 40 percent lower stroke risk, compared with women who ate the fewest whole grains in the study (like the amount you'd get by eating just a half-slice of whole grain bread every day), according to ABC News. (credit:Alamy)

Citrus Fruits(03 of06)

An antioxidant found in citrus fruits could help to lower risk of stroke in women, according to a study of 70,000 women earlier this year in the journal Stroke. Researchers from Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital found that women who consumed the most flavonoids over a 14-year period had a 19 percent lower risk of stroke than the women who consumed the fewest flavonoids during that time period. (credit:Alamy)

Low-Fat Dairy (04 of06)

Consuming low-fat dairy could help to lower the risk of stroke, according to a Stroke study. The research showed that the adults who consumed the most low-fat dairy over a 10-year period had a 12 percent lower risk of stroke compared with those who consumed the least low-fat dairy over the time period. "It is possible that vitamin D in low-fat dairy foods may explain, in part, the observed lowered risk of stroke in this study because of its potential effect on blood pressure," study researcher Susanna Larsson, Ph.D., associate professor of nutritional epidemiology at the Karolinska Institutet, said in a statement. (credit:Alamy)

Magnesium-Rich Foods (05 of06)

Foods loaded with magnesium -- like beans, nuts leafy greens and whole grains -- are linked with a lower risk of ischemic stroke, WebMD Reported. The findings, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, showed specifically that for each 100 milligrams of magnesium consumed each day, ischemic stroke risk went down by 9 percent. (credit:Alamy)

Fish(06 of06)

Making sure to eat some fish every week could help to lower risk of stroke, according to a review of studies published in the journal Stroke. Reuters reported on the study, which showed that eating fish several times a week was linked with a lower risk of stroke, compared with non-fish eaters. "I think overall, fish does provide a beneficial package of nutrients, in particular the omega-3s, that could explain this lower risk," Dariush Mozaffarian, an epidemiologist at the Harvard School of Public Health, whose research was part of the Stroke analysis, told Reuters. (credit:Alamy)

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