Loading...
When a new diagnosis of intracerebral hemorrhage is disclosed, patients and families often ask: What will happen to the blood? Preclinical models suggest that as the hematoma breaks down, the release of iron from hemoglobin could contribute to secondary brain injury. Enter deferoxamine mesylate, an iron chelator, which has been in clinical use to treat iron overload for decades.
In 2011, a phase 1 dose-finding study of deferoxamine among 20 patients with intracerebral hemorrhage estimated a maximum tolerated dose of 62 mg/kg/day (Stroke 2011; 42:3067). The subsequent phase 2 high-dose deferoxamine in intracerebral hemorrhage (HI-DEF) trial (Neurocrit Care 2013; 19:257) employed this dose but was suspended in 2014 after enrolling 42 patients …