Intravenous Injection of Autologous Bone Marrow Derived Mononuclear Cells in Ischemic Stroke Patients in Iraq

Cerebrovascular disease is the third most common cause of death in the developed world after cancer and ischemic heart disease. Yearly around 780,000 people affected with stroke and 160,000 die (about 20% mortality) in the United States, it is a leading cause of adult disability. Known risk factors for stroke include: hypertension, atrial fibrillation, smoking, carotid artery stenosis, increasing age, hypercholesterolemia and life style factors. Stroke prevention includes: diet modification, treatment of hypertension, proper exercise and maintenance of healthy weight. Treatment includes the early use of thrombolytic agents, antiplatelet, carotid end arterectomy. In this study 50 Iraqi patients diagnosed with chronic stroke (3 months-5years) were included. 38 male patients and 12 female with age range of 34-86 years, all the patients underwent autologous bone marrow mononuclear cells infusion intravenously. Mononuclear cell counts ranges from 5-6 x10 7 per product with 97 % viability. Three patients had mild fever 24 hours within infusion which responded to simple antipyretics. None of the patients had serious adverse events. Out of 50 patients 25 patients showed improvement in the neurological status with increase in European stroke scale from 4 to 20 and reduction in national institute of health stroke scale/score (50%) Time from performing the procedure till getting improvement ranges from 4-16 weeks after autologous bone marrow mononuclear cell infusions. The time from diagnosis till procedure performance was (3months-5 years), This study shows the positive effect of autologous bone marrow derived mononuclear cells in the functional recovery of adult patients with chronic ischemic stroke.