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Botox Helps Some Stroke Victims Recover, Study Says
Wed Aug 7, 5:11 PM ET
BOSTON (Reuters) - Botox, the injected toxin already used to
reduce the wrinkles of old age, can help relieve the muscle tightening
and twitching seen in some stroke patients, researchers said on
Wednesday.
The research appears to offer a new hope to the almost 750,000
people in the United States who suffer strokes each year and particularly
the many stroke victims who are left with disabling spasticity.
"The findings suggest that botulinum toxin is useful in
improving muscle tone, function and quality of life in patients
with wrist and finger spasticity after a stroke," said Allison
Brashear, the chief investigator and a researcher at the Indiana
University School of Medicine.
Botox produced significant improvement in the fingers and wrists
of nearly two thirds of stroke victims who received injections
of the poison, Brashear and her colleagues found.
In contrast, only a quarter of the people who received placebo
injections showed comparable progress after six weeks, according
to the study published in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine
( news - web sites).
The benefits from the Botox injections lasted for at least three
months. Subsequent tests showed that additional Botox injections
produced further improvement, with the benefits in many cases
lasting for 18 to 24 weeks, the researchers said.
The study involved 126 volunteers treated at 19 medical institutions
over a two-year period. Allergan Inc., which makes Botox, paid
for the research and all the researchers have past or present
financial ties to the company.
Botox, a purified form of the toxin that causes botulism food
poisoning but can also erase wrinkles, has become a popular weapon
for those people seeking to camouflage their age.
Researchers said in June that specially targeted injection of
Botox can also ease the pain of several types of headache, including
migraine and tension headache.
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