New Drug Therapy Could Prevent Strokes

A new drug therapy is being hailed as the single most important advancement yet in the treatment of stroke. Experts say the novel remedy could prevent more than 500,000 strokes a year. CBS News correspondent Randall Pinkston reports.

In Cornwall, England, each time Bruce Lee tends his garden is a reason to celebrate. Four years ago, he wasn't sure if he would walk again.

"I had a pencil in my hand and as I dropped the pencil, I bent down to pick it up," says Lee. "I fell down and I couldn't get up again."

Lee knew he had suffered a stroke. "I was so angry and annoyed because I was an able person," he says of his disability after the stroke.

Each year, 50 million people worldwide (600,000 in the United States) suffer a stroke. It is the nation's third greatest killer after heart attack and cancer. A stroke occurs when blood clots block arteries to the brain, damaging brain cells and impairing speech and motor skills. Survivors are at high risk for a second stroke.

"About a third of patients who have one stroke go on to have a second stroke--the second more likely to be fatal," says Peter Rothwell, MD, clinical professor of neurology at the Radcliffe Infirmary at Oxford University, England.

Now researchers in Europe believe they've found a way to prevent second strokes by combining two popular drugs--an ACE inhibitor (blood pressure medication) and a diuretic.

A recent study included 6,100 stroke victims from Australia, Asia, and Europe. Over the course of the 4-year randomized study, patients who received the combination of ACE inhibitor and diuretic cut their risk for a second stroke by as much as half.

Doctors in the United States are excited by the findings, not only as a tool for treatment, but also as a possible way to prevent first strokes.

"If we can identify people who are at high risk [for stroke], then we're that much more ahead of the game," says Robert Marshall, MD, a cardiologist at the Georgetown University Medical Center.
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