Cord Blood Stroke Treatment

Initial tests using umbilical cord blood to aid recovery in stroke victims have shown some promising results. In a limited study, 10 stroke patients ranging in age from 45 to 79 were given a single infusion of blood from the umbilical cords of newborns. The period between the onset of the stroke and the time the injection was administered ranged from three to 10 days, and all volunteers were evaluated three months later. All showed improvement in speech, vision and movement, and their assessment scores were higher than would have been predicted without the treatment.

This result appears to agree with earlier animal experiments, which indicated that the stem cells encouraged new brain cell growth and suppressed inflammation. A larger controlled trial is now underway to confirm the findings.

It has been estimated that, in the United States alone, nearly 800,000 people suffer from a stroke each year, and 40 percent will experience severe impairments requiring specialized care. Clot-busting drugs often cannot be used because they must be administered within five hours in order to be effective. New forms of treatment are urgently needed to improve outcomes and quality of life.