Stroke is a serious medical condition and can lead to death or disability. It occurs when the blood supply to part of the brain is blocked. It is a medical emergency and requires immediate treatment. There are two types of stroke, ischaemic stroke and haemorrhagic stroke. In ischaemic stroke a blood clot leads to a blockage of a blood vessel supplying the brain with oxygen and nutrients. In haemorrhagic stroke a small blood vessel in the brain bursts, leading to bleeding. You can read more about stroke on the NHS website - Stroke - NHS (www.nhs.uk)
In NHS Grampian we have a dedicated Stroke research team. The team is involved in research studies that aim to help find better treatments for stroke patients. One of these studies is the DASH trial. Our team has recently received praise from the coordinating centre (Stroke Trials Unit, University of Nottingham) for recruiting so many participants to the study. The DASH trial is looking at patients that have suffered a haemorrhagic stroke and are taking anti-platelet medications (designed to prevent blood clots) for underlying heart conditions or risk of ischaemic stroke. Patients taking these medications are at a higher risk of disability or death after haemorrhagic stroke. The study aims to test a medication called Desmopressin in this patient group to see if it can reverse the effects of anti-platelet medications and improve patient outcomes. The DASH trial is a ‘feasibility’ study and looks at a small number of patients to see if it will be possible to do a larger trial with many participants. Studies usually need a large number of participants to see if a treatment works reliably or not. You can read more about the study on this website ISRCTN - ISRCTN67038373: Desmopressin for treatment of stroke patients on antiplatelet therapy.
If you want to find out what other stroke studies are open to patients, please check our Trials near you pages
The Chief Investigator of the DASH trial, Professor Nikola Sprigg provided us with the following:
“Dear Aberdeen team,
Congratulations again on your fantastic contribution to this important trial DASH - intracerebral haemorrhage is a devastating condition, with no effective drug treatment and you have helped us in the first steps to try and discover better treatments. Participation in studies like DASH is the only way we can test these new treatments safely.
And we can only say that you have been a dream team to work with!
We look forward to working with you again on other trials, hopefully TICH-3 and DASH-2.
Kind regards,
Niki “
Well done to the local DASH study team: Janice, Annika, Sandra and German. Thank you to the participants and their families who make research possible!