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Biotech / Medical : Future Medical Device Companies

STXS 2.780

-3.8%

Nov 3 3:59 PM EST

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From: dr.praveen	6/10/2006 6:46:27 AM
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My scribblings on Northstar: Blah Blah statistics on Stroke: According to the American Stroke Association, there are over 5.5 million stroke survivors in the United States, of which approximately half suffer from hand or arm motor impairment. According to the American Stroke Association, over four million people in the US are survivors of stroke, with approximately 700,000 additional strokes occurring annually. Each year over 200,000 people in the US become significantly and permanently disabled due to stroke. There are few, if any, effective therapies available for these patients. The direct and indirect cost of stroke in 2004 in the US is estimated to be over $50 billion. Regd Northstar: I have worked with a couple of deep brain stimulators for parkinsons pts. Also read a couple of papers on Cortical stimulation and it seems to work to a reasonable extent to regain motor activity by a phenomenon called Neuroplasticity. The northstar device is easy to put in pts(surgery is very simple for a neurosurgeon)with an fMRI for precision and also it gives you more chances for a success coz the pt has a little activity in the arm.Their patent position seems to be strong and no competitiors as of now.coz it will be taken out from the pt after the therapy, side effects of infection and other complications like reoperating for changing the battery will be less.Seeing the past data from ADAMS n BAKER trials, it has more than reasonable chances of hitting the primary end points in the EVEREST trial.This one has very high chances of being gulped by a big fish. The other imp things working in their favour are the average improvement of motor function for these patients in their first and second feasibility trials were 29% and 17% which is good in stroke pts. The changes in the fMRI post therapy seems to add that the gain in the motor function may be permanent. Also this motor function improvement is sustained at 24 weeks is a key point.The Co thinks that the test results suggest that cortical stimulation in stroke survivors might improve neurocognitive function in addition to its effect on motor function which is beneficial but no great shakes. I am not sure if it might work for tinnitus or aphasia. I know Deep brain stimulation works in pts with tremor, but not confident if cortical stimulation helps tremor.

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