NEWS that a heart drug helped save a North-East stroke victim is an example of how drugs can sometimes have more than one application.

Recombinent Tissue Plasminogen Activator (rtPA) was developed to treat heart attack victims. But doctors in America and Europe are now using it to treat stroke victims, provided they can be seen within the first few hours. UK medical authorities would like more evidence of its effectiveness with stroke victims before it is licensed.

Other drugs which were found to have wider applications include aspirin, developed for pain relief but now used to treat heart disease, and Viagra, developed to treat heart conditions but now used for male impotence. Even Thalidomide, a now infamous drug developed in the 1950s to treat morning sickness which resulted in thousands of birth defects, has now been found to be an effective treatment for leprosy.

As reported earlier this week, 83-year-old stroke victim Doris Holmes from Bishop Auckland was given a drug which is normally only given to heart attack patients. She suffered a serious stroke which left her unconscious and paralysed down the right side but was lucky to live close to Bishop Auckland General stroke unit. She was even more fortunate that the consultant in charge of the stroke unit, Dr Ali Mehrzed, was aware of the existence of rtPA, which quickly dissolves dangerous blood clots.

Currently licensed for use in the UK for the treatment of heart attack patients, it has been shown to be highly effective for stroke patients if they are treated within a few hours of the attack. However rtPA does not have a current UK licence as a treatment for strokes.

Dr Mehrzed, at the request of Mrs Holme's daughter, Marilyn Weerasinghe, gambled that the drug might work in her case, and remarkably, it restored movement to Mrs Holmes within minutes and speech within hours.

Dr Mehrzed is involved in a major international trial of rtPA and is aware that it is already used on stroke patients in America and Europe.

Unfortunately that trial, the latest of three large studies involving stroke specialists all over the world, will not report back for another five years. Until then the use of rtPA will probably be used on limited numbers of British stroke patients.

But the outlook for stroke patients should still improve. From next April the Department of Health has instructed all district general hospitals to set up dedicated stroke units staffed with specialist doctors and nurses.

For Dr Mehrzed - and the Stroke Association - the key is to give a higher priority to stroke patients and treat them more like heart attack victims.