
Some people develop epilepsy after surviving a stroke, as the injury they’ve sustained causes scarring and disorganized electrical activity in their brains. But one type of blood pressure medication seems to help stroke survivors avoid post-stroke epilepsy (PSE), according to a first-of-its-kind study presented Friday at the annual meeting of the American Epilepsy Society in Los Angeles. Patients taking angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) drugs appear to be much less likely to develop PSE than those on other blood pressure medications, results showed. ARB drugs work by decreasing the effects of angiotensin, a protein that causes blood vessels to narrow, researchers explained in background notes. Blocking this protein might decrease inflammation and improve blood flow in the brain, reducing the risk of seizures, researchers theorized. “Our study uniquely focused on how effective different blood pressure medications are at preventing PSE in the real world,” said co-lead researcher Dr. Giacomo Evangelista, a resident in neurology at the Epilepsy Center at G. d’Annunzio University of Chieti-Pescara in Italy. “Understanding which antihypertensive medications help prevent complications such as PSE can lead to better patient outcomes,” Evangelista added in a meeting news release. For the study, researchers recruited 528 patients with high blood pressure who’d suffered a stroke. None of the patients had epilepsy at the time of their stroke. All of the participants had been taking some type of blood… read on > read on >