Cooling System in Study to Treat Stroke

This decreased blood flow interrupts the supply of oxygen and nutrients to the affected portion of the brain. Mild hypothermia (32o-35oC) may protect and preserve the damaged tissue by slowing cellular metabolism and the cascade of adverse reactions that lead to tissue death. The new treatment, called the Celsius Control System, was developed by Innercool Therapies, Inc. (San Diego, CA, USA). Another trial in progress is evaluating the use of the system in patients who develop a fever after suffering a ruptured brain aneurysm.

The system consists of an endovascular catheter, circulating set, and console. The tip of the catheter incorporates a proprietary, alloy-based temperature control element (TCE) that is controlled or warmed with saline solution circulated from the console. When placed in the inferior vena cava, the TCE exchanges heat directly with the blood flowing in the vessels, which cools or rewarms organs and the body. The system does not require fluids to be perfused into the patient nor blood to be circulated outside the body.

"Currently, physicians are cooling patients from the outside in by transferring heat through the skin with surface methods such as cooling blankets,” said Patrick Lyden, M.D., director of the Veterans Affairs/University of California, San Diego, Stroke Center and principal investigator of the study. "This is a slow and cumbersome way to induce and maintain hypothermia.”




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