This dose escalation phase I study is to evaluate the safety and feasibility of iNO as adjunctive therapy in the treatment of AIS in adult patients with clinically significant strokes.~iNO will act as a selective vasodilator to ischemic tissues in the brain, increasing perfusion to the area of the brain most at risk (penumbra) in AIS patients. This therapy will help to increase collateral circulation and perfusion to the penumbra, salvaging this tissue and limiting the volume of core infarct while mitigating reperfusion injury to the salvaged tissue.~Protection of ischemic penumbra is paramount in IAMT stroke patients. IAMT to re-establish blood flow during AIS from a large vessel occlusion (LVO) reduces death and disability. Initially this intervention was recommended up until 6 hours after symptom onset, but more recently has proven safe and effective up to 16 and 24 hours after stroke onset in select patients. These studies have confirmed the long believed thought that supporting ischemic penumbra during AIS helps limit the size of the ultimate core infarct and therefore reduces disability and death from stroke. Treatment aimed at protecting ischemic penumbra is thus paramount to treatment and research endeavors in AIS patients.~iNO protects ischemic penumbra. Nitric oxide is an endothelial-derived vasodilator and has been shown to mediate cytoprotection after ischemic reperfusion injury and appears to aid in ischemic preconditioning signaling pathways. iNO has been shown to cause selective dilation of arterioles in the ischemic penumbra of stroke and subarachnoid hemorrhage animal models, helping augment the cerebral microcirculation and improve penumbral blood flow. This has been shown to reduce ischemic brain damage, limit core infarct, and consistently improve neurological outcome in a middle cerebral artery AIS mouse model
The purpose of this study is to determine the safety and feasibility of using inhaled nitric oxide (iNO) in patients undergoing intra-arterial mechanical thrombectomy (blood clot extraction or IAMT) for treatment of acute ischemic (non-bleeding) stroke (AIS).