The University of Illinois College of Medicine Peoria will expand its stroke treatment research as part of a new federal grant. The college has been awarded $1.8 million from the National Institutes of Health.
UICOMP researchers have identified a specific enzyme present in ischemic stroke patients that is not common in healthy brains. Officials say the finding could lead to new stroke treatments.
Ischemic strokes happen when blood flow to a part of the brain is cut off by blood clots. The grant will expand the school’s existing studies on brain damage therapy and neurological stroke recovery.
UICOMP says nearly 800,000 people annually suffer long-term disability as the result of a stroke. Ischemic strokes account for 85-percent of those cases.
