Nexstim, Drake Center to study Navigated Brain Stimulation in stroke recovery diagnosis and rehabilitation

"We see enormous potential for the use of Navigated Brain Stimulation in the field of neurorehabilitation."

Photo credit: University of Cincinnati

Helsinki, Finland - January 21, 2009 - Nexstim Oy, a medical device company developing a revolutionary brain diagnostics and therapy technology, and Drake Center, in association with the University of Cincinnati, today announced they had signed an agreement to study the benefits of using Navigated Brain Stimulation (NBS) in the diagnosis, monitoring and treatment of a patient's recovery following stroke.

The Nexstim NBS device will initially be used in a Drake-sponsored study to determine how the brain's potential to transmit high quality signals to a stroke patient's muscles might be used to better assess prognosis and the success of physiotherapy during post-stroke rehabilitation.

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"We see enormous potential for the use of Navigated Brain Stimulation in the field of neurorehabilitation," said Kari Dunning, P.T., Ph.D., Director of Research at Drake Center and Assistant Professor of Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Cincinnati's College of Allied Health Sciences. "Nexstim offers us a truly innovative non-invasive technology which we believe in the future may be able to guide our treatment, measure the effectiveness of our treatments and provide another tool for treatment in our studies. We are impressed by the broad level of research supporting Navigated Brain Stimulation and the deep scientific understanding at Nexstim. We feel confident that we have the best possible partner for our clinical research in this important area."

Nexstim's NBS device is a non-invasive method to gently stimulate precise areas of the human cortex of the brain while simultaneously measuring the effect of stimuli on the central nervous system and the peripheral nerves responsible for movement. Stimuli are given by a small electromagnetic coil which is guided over the head very much like driving a car with GPS. Simply by loading the system with a standard MRI brain scan, an operator can precisely locate the area to stimulate. Best of all, the patient need do nothing more than sit in a comfortable reclining chair wearing a special pair of optically-tracked glasses. No patient effort is required, and brain mapping generally takes less than an hour.

Jukka-Pekka Särkkä, Managing Director of Nexstim commented, "We are very pleased to be working with the Drake Center on applications of our technology to benefit stroke patients. Drake Center and its association with the University of Cincinnati College of Allied Health Sciences provides a unique setting and interdisciplinary approach to research the effectiveness of this device with stroke inpatients and outpatients, as well as to work with both clinicians and researchers who are nationally-known leaders in the field of stroke rehabilitation. With their innovative approaches to stroke care, the Drake Center is an ideal clinical research partner for us in the US."

Nexstim has been used for research in Europe and Asia for five years. However, Drake Center will be the first inpatient rehabilitation hospital to use the device for clinical research. Research labs in the United States with the Nexstim device include the National Institutes of Health, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School, the University of Wisconsin and the MGH/HST Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging.

Because the device does not currently have FDA approval, it will be used exclusively for research at this time. This will be the first time the Nexstim device is used to study the potential of translating research results into clinical use.

Dr. Dunning has no financial interest in Nexstim Oy, which is partially funding the study along with Drake Center.

About Drake Center: Drake Center is the leading provider of specialized medical and rehabilitative care in the Ohio region, offering a complete range of inpatient and outpatient care. Services include long-term acute care (medically complex care and rehabilitation), transitional skilled nursing, assisted living and various outpatient and wellness services. In addition to stroke recovery, Drake Center specializes in the care of traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, pulmonary care/ventilator weaning and advanced wound care patients. In collaboration with the on-site Neuromotor Recovery and Rehabilitation Laboratory (NmRRL), Drake Center has more than 15 stroke recovery studies on-going and during 2007-2008 published 10 peer reviewed articles. Drake Center recently launched the Stroke Recovery Center at Drake, including the new Stroke Team Assessment and Recovery Treatment Program. Drake Center is part of the Health Alliance, an integrated health care delivery system that also includes University Hospital of Cincinnati, Jewish Hospital, Fort Hamilton Hospital, West Chester Medical Center and the physicians of Alliance Primary Care. For more information, visit http://www.drakecenter.com/ or call 1-800-948-2500 x 84450.

About Nexstim: Nexstim was founded in 2000 to commercialize Navigated Brain Stimulation (NBS), the combination of stereotacticly guided transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and high-resolution EEG/EMG measurement. NBS allows a neurologist to non-invasively excite, or inhibit, precise areas of the cerebral cortex with unsurpassed accuracy and instantly see the response in the central nervous system (CNS) and the peripheral nerves. NBS has promising applications in functional brain imaging, including cortical mapping and evaluating brain damage following stroke. Therapeutic applications, including stroke rehabilitation, also hold great promise for NBS. In 2007, Nexstim successfully raised EUR 8 million in new equity financing, led by European venture capital investors HealthCap and LSP. See http://www.nexstim.com/.

NBS System is CE-marked. Caution: In the United States, the NBS System is limited by Federal law to investigational use.

Contacts:

Ms. Lori Cross
Nexstim, Inc.
Phone: 1-608-441 8378

Drake Center
Phone: 513-418-2641,
Pager: 513-269-7054

Lori.Deaton@healthall.com

Note to editors:

Impact of Stroke:

• About 780,000 Americans each year suffer a new or recurrent stroke. That means, on average, a stroke occurs every 40 seconds.
• Stroke kills more than 150,000 people a year. That's about 1 of every 16 deaths. It's the No. 3 cause of death behind diseases of the heart and cancer.
• On average, every 3 to 4minutes someone dies of stroke.
• Of every 5 deaths from stroke, 2 occur in men and 3 in women.
• The 2004 stroke death rates per 100,000 population for specific groups were 48.1 for white males, 47.2 for white females, 74.9 for black males and 65.5 for black females.
• Americans will pay about $65.5 billion in 2008 for stroke-related medical costs and disability.

Source: AHA