A Pilot Study of Nicardipine for Acute Ischemic Stroke. The Nicardipine Study Group

Preliminary experience with intra-arterial nicardipine in patients with acute ischemic stroke

“…The median admission NIHSS score was 14 (range [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]. Nine patients presented after 3 h and were not administered IV rt-PA; one patient presented within 3 h was not treated with IV rt-PA because of heavy vaginal bleeding.…”

“…The actual mechanism of action is unclear, however, it presumably exerts its effect by local vasodilatory actions with increase in regional cerebral blood flow and blockade of calcium entry into the ischemic brain cells [3][4][5]. There have been limited animal and human studies supporting the use of nicardipine in acute ischemic stroke [4,6,7]. The use of IA nicardipine is not well described in acute ischemic stroke and has only been used in the setting of arterial vasospasm from non-traumatic aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) [8].…”

Calcium antagonists: stroke therapy coming of age.

“…68 Doses up to 3-4 mg/hr were well tolerated. A randomized, controlled, clinical trial of nicardipine for acute cerebral infarction is in the planning stages.…”

Nicardipine Infusion for Blood Pressure Control in Patients with Subarachnoid Hemorrhage

“…Nicardipine has been used for blood pressure control in severe hypertension [5], after ischemic stroke, either intravenously (IV) [6,7] or intraarterially (to improve recanalization of the vessels) [8], to control elevated BP after intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) [9][10][11] or after traumatic brain injury [11] and to improve vasospasm after SAH [12][13][14][15].…”