Does High Dose Erythropoietin administration reduce ischemic stroke complications?

Ischemic brain strokes consist two Third of all strokes and their complications bear a lot of cost and disability for the patient and society. In this study we seek for the effect of Erythropoietin on ischemic brain strokes’ outcome according to NIHSS (National Institudes of Health Stroke Scale) changes. This study is a RCT. All patients with focal neurologic deficit with primary suspicion of brain stroke underwent neuroimaging evaluations. after confirmation of new ischemic brain stroke, the patients with inclusion criteria randomized into two groups of cases and controls. NIHSS was defined for each patient and all patients received a routine treatment protocol. Erythropoietin 16000 IU as a bolus intravenous dose was given to case patients as soon as neuroimaging study confirmed new ischemic stroke and continued as 8000 IU each 12hr up to total dose of 56000 IU during 3 days. Patients were re-evaluated at days 14 and 28 and NIHSS was assessed by another neurologist blinded to patient’s group. Finally NIHSS changes of both groups were compared with each other. Evaluations revealed that in days 14 and 28 during follow up, Erythropoietin was effective in NIHSS (P-value: 0.0001). This effect is of value in LOC Commands (P: 0.024), facial palsy (P: 0.003), motor arm (P: 0.0001), motor leg (P: 0.0001), sensory (P: 0.009) and best language (P: 0.023). Administration of High dose erythropoietin in first 24 hours can be effective on the reduction of ischemic stroke complication. However, a larger scale clinical trial is warranted.