Current Perspectives in Post-stroke Cognitive Impairment
Post-stroke cognitive impairment (PSCI) is a particularly serious consequence of cerebral ischaemia and often inhibits or retards patient rehabilitation. Current treatments do not improve long-term outcomes for a significant proportion of patients and remain a substantially unmet medical need. Initiatives to address the challenge of post-stroke rehabilitation have included therapies that modify multiple pathogenetic mechanisms and provide protection to neural networks and facilitate their regeneration. Promising biological agents have been tested, but few have so far yielded clinically conclusive evidence further emphasising the shortage of therapies available to treat this disease. The multimolecular agent Actovegin® has been shown to stimulate capillary flow and neurometabolism after stroke and to provide promising results in the treatment of mixed dementia. Clinical trials are now in progress to fully evaluate this pleiotropic neurometabolic therapy.