Efficiency of citicoline in increasing muscular strength of patients with nontraumatic cerebral hemorrhage: a double-blind randomized clinical trial.
BACKGROUND
Brain infarction cerebrovascular accident is the most common neurologic disease throughout the world. Currently, there is no proven therapeutic effect for drugs other than thrombolytic ones in treatment of the acute phase of cerebrovascular accident. Some recent studies indicate that neuroprotective compounds such as citicoline can be of benefit in the acute phase of cerebrovascular accidents, including the bleeding form. This study was carried out to assess the efficiency of citicoline in increasing muscular strength of patients with nontraumatic cerebral hemorrhage.


METHODS
This was a double-blind randomized clinical trial on 32 patients with hemorrhagic nontraumatic supratentorial cerebral infarction, who were divided into two groups of 16, the first of which was treated with citicoline (250 mg intravenously twice a day) for 14 days. The second group was given placebo and their muscular strength was measured through physical examination before treatment and then 3 months later. The groups were matched in terms of age, sex, and amount of bleeding. The muscular strength of the two groups was compared using Mann-Whitney nonparametric test.


RESULTS
Half of the patients were male and the mean of muscular strength in both groups before intervention was 2.5 (0-4.5) and after intervention was 4 in the group receiving citicoline and 3.12 and in the group receiving placebo, which indicates a meaningful difference (P = .019).


CONCLUSIONS
The findings of this study showed that muscular strength in patients with cerebral hemorrhage receiving citicoline increased and indicated that citicoline may be efficient in treatment of patients with cerebral hemorrhage.
Iranmanesh
Farhad
F
Department of Neurology, Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences, Rafsanjan, Iran. swt_f@yahoo.com
Vakilian
Alireza
A
D000368:Aged; D002543:Cerebral Hemorrhage / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology; D003566:Cytidine Diphosphate Choline / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D053580:Muscle Strength / Q000187:drug effects*; D018696:Neuroprotective Agents / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D018696:Neuroprotective Agents; D003566:Cytidine Diphosphate Choline