Intra-arterial bone marrow mononuclear cell transplantation correlates with GM-CSF, PDGF-BB, and MMP-2 serum levels in stroke patients: results from a clinical trial.

Bone marrow mononuclear cell (BM-MNC) intra-arterial transplantation improves recovery in experimental models of ischemic stroke through secretion of cytokines and growth factors (GFs), enhancing neoangiogenesis, and enhancing neuroplasticity. In this study, we tested whether BM-MNC transplantation in stroke patients induces changes in serum levels of cytokines and GFs. A phase I/II trial was conducted in middle cerebral artery (MCA) stroke patients with autologous intra-arterial BM-MNC transplantation between 5 and 9 days after stroke.

Progressive changes in cerebral perfusion after carotid stenting: a dynamic susceptibility contrast perfusion weighted imaging study.

Background: We aimed to assess baseline inter-hemispheric perfusion differences, before carotid artery stenting (CAS), of severe internal carotid artery (ICA) stenosis, and to evaluate perfusion changes over time after CAS by means of perfusion weighted imaging (PWI).

Methods: Dynamic susceptibility contrast PWI was performed in 33 patients with severe ICA stenosis 1 day before and 1 day after CAS, and repeated in 23 patients 30 days after CAS. Cerebral blood volume, cerebral blood flow, arrival time (T0), mean transit time, and time to peak (TTP) relative values comparing symptomatic and asymptomatic hemispheres before CAS were obtained.

Carotid plaque characterization by virtual histology intravascular ultrasound related to the timing of carotid intervention.

Purpose: To determine the incidence of vulnerable plaques characterized by virtual histology intravascular ultrasound (VH IVUS) in patients with severe internal carotid artery (ICA) stenosis and its relationship to the timing of protected carotid artery stenting (CAS).

Methods: The study included 141 patients (119 men; mean age 66.9 ± 9 years) with severe ICA stenosis undergoing CAS with cerebral protection.

Intra-arterial bone marrow mononuclear cells in ischemic stroke: a pilot clinical trial.

Background And Purpose: Bone marrow mononuclear cell (BM-MNC) intra-arterial transplantation improves recovery in experimental models of ischemic stroke. We aimed to assess the safety, feasibility, and biological effects of autologous BM-MNC transplantation in patients with stroke.

Methods: A single-blind (outcomes assessor) controlled Phase I/II trial was conducted in patients with middle cerebral artery stroke.

[Filter content after carotid angioplasty and stenting: relation to ischemic lesions in diffusion-weighted imaging].

Objectives: To evaluate the relation between the material retrieved from distal filters after carotid angioplasty and stenting and the development of ischemic brain lesions in diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI). To determine the influence of demographic, clinical, and procedural variables in the pathogenesis of emboli and in ischemia after carotid angioplasty and stenting.

Material And Methods: We submitted the contents of the filters of 76 patients (60 men; mean age, 68.