Story of a clinical trial provides serious food for thought

A still from the video of my PFO closure.
Click here to watch the video.

Something to think about: Clinical trials are necessary but can be thought-provoking.

The Houston Chronicle recently published a look at a clinical trial to find answers about closing a heart defect called a patent foramen ovale, or a PFO. It's potentially a stroke-causing defect. It was the probable cause of my stroke in 1998. It got patched up in 2007. You can click here to read about it.

But even though mine was fixed almost 10 years ago, it didn't end the controversy over whether the procedure - done in a cardiac catheterization lab - was really better than treating the defect with medication. One of my personal choices involved not taking blood-thinning warfarin - click here to read about it - for the rest of my life.

Inexpensive drug goes through stroke prevention trial

Many more people write much  better about clinical trials than I do, so I don't do it very often.

However, I was a bit surprised by an article I ran across an upcoming trial about the drug methotrexate for stroke prevention. Why? In at least one of its form, it's cheap. I have a relative who took  it for rheumatoid arthritis, and the cost was nominal.

So, I hope there is some success in the use of this potentially inexpensive medication. Not a bad idea to check back on its progress from time to time, especially through your own doctor.

Here's a link to a MedPage Today article and a small excerpt:

"We believe that the concept of reducing inflammation has enormous potential as a new method to reduce the burden of heart attack and stroke for our patients," Ridker said in a press release.

Selection of the planned 350 to 400 sites for the trial is to begin in November, with patient recruitment in the U.S. and Canada to get under way in March 2013, according to an NHLBI statement.

Methotrexate, an antifolate drug, has powerful anti-inflammatory properties. It's the standard disease-modifying drug for rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis. At higher doses, the drug suppresses cell proliferation and is used to treat various cancers.

Good resource to follow

From the U.S. National Library of Medicine, part of the National Institutes of Health, a service called MedlinePlus offers a great stream of good, updated information about strokes.

Follow this link to get to this resource.

It includes basic information on signs and symptoms, prevention and recovery. You can read about related clinical trials, research and much more.

Through this page, you can also sign up to receive updates via e-mail. Good content, good information for better stroke awareness.