Transferability of Animal Results To Human Stroke
Although multiple therapies have proven to be effective in animals, only very few have done so in human patients. Reasons for this are (Dirnagl 1999):
- Side effects: Many highly potent neuroprotective drugs display side effects which inhibit the application of effective doses in patients (e.g. MK-801)
- Delay: Whereas in animal studies the time of incidence onset is known and therapy can be started early, patients often present with delay and unclear time of symptom onset
- “Age and associated illnesses: Most experimental studies are conducted on healthy, young animals under rigorously controlled laboratory conditions. However, the typical stroke patient is elderly with numerous risk factors and complicating diseases (for example, diabetes, hypertension and heart diseases)” (Dirnagl 1999)
- Morphological and functional differences between the brain of humans and animals: Although the basic mechanisms of stroke are identical between humans and other mammals, there are differences.
- Evaluation of efficacy: In animals, treatment effects are mostly measured as a reduction of lesion volume, whereas in human studies functional evaluation (which reflects the severity of disabilities) is commonly used. Thus, therapies might reduce the size of the cerebral lesion (found in animals), but not the functional impairment when tested in patients.
Read more about this topic: Animal Models Of Stroke
Famous quotes containing the words animal, results, human and/or stroke:
“Mind and spirit together make up that which separates us from the rest of the animal world, that which enables a man to know the truth and that which enables him to die for the truth.”
—Edith Hamilton (1867–1963)
“If family communication is good, parents can pick up the signs of stress in children and talk about it before it results in some crisis. If family communication is bad, not only will parents be insensitive to potential crises, but the poor communication will contribute to problems in the family.”
—Donald C. Medeiros (20th century)
“We are naïve and moralistic women. We are human beings. Who find politics a blight upon the human condition. And do not know how one copes with it except through politics.”
—Kate Millett (b. 1934)
“Every new stroke of civilization has cost the lives of countless brave men, who have fallen defeated by the “dragon,” in their efforts to win the apples of the Hesperides, or the fleece of gold. Fallen in their efforts to overcome the old, half sordid savagery of the lower stages of creation, and win the next stage.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)