Stroke and COVID with Dr James Seigler

Idarucizumab is a monoclonal antibody fragment with high affinity for dabigatran reversing its anticoagulant effects within minutes. Patients with acute ischemic stroke on dabigatran treatment may become eligible for thrombolysis with rt-PA. In patients on dabigatran with intracerebral hemorrhage idarucizumab could prevent lesion growth. Carmen Lahiff-Jenkins, Managing Editor of the International Journal of Stroke spoke to Dr Pawel Kermer from Krankenhaus Sanderbusch; Neurology, Sande...

Mobile stroke units, otherwise known as MSUs have recently been introduced in the care of patients suspected of having an acute stroke, leading to shortening in the time to thrombolytics, but how does the clinical effectiveness in terms of functional outcome and survival among patients treated in MSU and/or conventional care compare?  Carmen Lahiff-Jenkins; Managing Editor of the International Journal of Stroke spoke to the very impressive Dr Nida Fatima from the Department of Neurosurgery,...

Clinical assessment scores in acute ischemic stroke are only moderately correlated with lesion volume since lesion location is an important confounding factor. Many studies have investigated grey matter indicators of stroke severity but the understanding of white matter tract involvement is limited in the early phase after stroke. Carmen Lahiff-Jenkins, Managing Editor for the International Journal of Stroke spoke to Dr Deepthi Rajashekar from the Biomedical Engineering Graduate Program,...

Anecdotal reports and clinical observations have recently emerged suggesting a relationship between COVID-19 disease and stroke; highlighting the possibility that infected individuals may be more susceptible to cerebrovascular events Carmen Lahiff-Jenkins, Managing Editor of the International Journal of Stroke (IJS) spoke to Kieron South and Craig Smith from the University of Manchester, two authors of the article Preceding Infection and Risk of Stroke: An Old Concept Revived by the COVID-19...

In health research we often hear, and pay lip service to the term ‘patient centred‘. Many of us would probably be hard pressed to devise entirely patient centred studies. "Take Charge’ is an impressive, novel, community-based self-directed rehabilitation intervention that helps a person with stroke to take charge of their own recovery.  In a previous randomised controlled trial, a single Take Charge session improved independence and health-related quality of life 12 months following stroke in...

Controversy and great interest exists regarding cardiovascular and cerebrovascular risk and it’s relationship to sleep duration. Carmen Lahiff-Jenkins, Managing Editor of the International Journal of Stroke spoke to Dr Jingwei Li from the George Institute for Global Health about the paper ‘Secondary analyses of the international, multicenter, Sleep Apnea Cardiovascular Endpoints trial’ other wise known as the SAVE trial. If you enjoy this podcast series then please help spread the word,...

The thrombolysis in cerebral infarction scale otherwise known as the (TICI) scale is an important outcome measure to evaluate the quality of endovascular stroke therapy. The TICI scale is ordinal and observer dependent, so this means it may not result in the best prediction of patient outcome and can also provide an inconsistent reperfusion grading.  Carmen Lahiff Jenkins Managing Editor of the International Journal of Stroke spoke to Drs Haryadi Prasetya and Manon Kappelhof from Amsterdamn...

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an ongoing pandemic characterized by high morbidity and mortality. Clinical factors that can identify patients at risk for worse outcomes can help in developing risk stratification models for judicious use of healthcare resources. A team of researchers from Italy and the USA performed a pooled analysis of published studies, for assessing the impact of CVD in patients with COVID-19. They found CVD was associated with 2.5-fold enhanced risk of severe...

On March 11th, 2020 the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 infection a pandemic. We are currently in the throws of that global infection and the big question everyone is racing to ask and answer is the risk of ischemic stroke higher in patients with COVID-19 infection. We spoke to both Drs based in the United States Adnan Quereshi from the University of Missouri, Department of Neurology, and Vishal Jani from the Creighton University School of Medicine, Immanuel Medical Centre...

Obstructive sleep apnea is common among patients with acute ischemic stroke and is associated with reduced functional recovery and an increased risk for recurrent vascular events. The Sleep SMART trial is the first large trial to test whether aCPAP for obstructive sleep apnea after stroke/TIA reduces recurrent vascular events or death, and improves functional recovery. Carmen Lahiff-Jenkins, Managing Editor of the International Journal of spoke to Professor Devin Brown from the department of...

Researcher Peter Knapp talks to the International Journal of Stroke Managing Editor on the review the Frequency of anxiety after stroke which is a timely updated systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies in this area.

In 2017, for the first time, stroke, became the second most common cause of both death and disability in the world.  In New Zealand (NZ) the situation is even more dire as was previously shown through a series of population-based Auckland Regional Community Stroke Studies (ARCOS) population-based studies. The number of stroke survivors have tripled over the last three decades, and there are also significant ethnic disparities in stroke, with the risk of stroke in Māori and Pacific people two...

Informal caregivers in stroke: life impact, support and psychological well-being - a Swedish Stroke Register (Riksstroke) study In 2016, the Swedish Stroke Register, Riksstroke, conducted a long-term follow-up survey on caregivers to patients with stroke three and five years earlier. Items on psychological well- being were adapted from the 36-item short-form health survey (SF-36) and poor outcome was defined using the SF-36 reference material. Survivor degree of dependency was indicated by...

In this podcast World Stroke Organization members from Japan demonstrate the importance of professional and patient collaboration in influencing stroke policy. We spoke to people from Australia to Japan and followed the journey of this important legislation from the 14 stakeholder groups to the Japanese Diet. 

In 2015 discussions began among key researchers in the field of stroke rehabilitation and recovery. This resulted in the Stroke Recovery and Rehabilitation Roundtable who met in Philadelphia, in the USA and resulted in the publication of 6 papers in the International Journal of Stroke and the Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair journals. We are now on the second round table and things are heating up significantly in the rehabilitation and recovery space. The second published SRRR series...

In 2015 discussions began among key researchers in the field of stroke rehabilitation and recovery. This resulted in the Stroke Recovery and Rehabilitation Roundtable who met in Philadelphia, in the USA and resulted in the publication of 6 papers in the International Journal of Stroke and the Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair journals. We are now on the second round table and things are heating up significantly in the rehabilitation and recovery space. The second published SRRR series...

In 2015 discussions began among key researchers in the field of stroke rehabilitation and recovery.  This resulted in the Stroke Recovery and Rehabilitation Roundtable who met in Philadelphia, in the USA and resulted in the publication of 6 papers in the International Journal of Stroke and the Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair journals. We are now on the second round table and things are heating up significantly in the rehabilitation and recovery space. The second published SRRR series...

In 2015 discussions began among key researchers in the field of stroke rehabilitation and recovery.  This resulted in the Stroke Recovery and Rehabilitation Roundtable who met in Philadelphia, in the USA and resulted in the publication of 6 papers in the International Journal of Stroke and the Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair journals. We are now on the second round table and things are heating up significantly in the rehabilitation and recovery space. The second published SRRR series...

Dr George Ntaois on 'Oral anticoagulation versus antiplatelet/placebo for stroke prevention in patients with heart failure and sinus rhythm: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials' Previous meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials of oral anticoagulation in patients with heart failure and sinus rhythm reported reduced stroke risk and increased bleeding risk compared to antiplatelets or placebo. However, the effect estimates may be subject to imprecision, as...

Cost-utility analysis of mechanical thrombectomy between 6 and 24 hours in acute ischemic stroke Recently, two randomized controlled trials demonstrated the benefit of mechanical thrombectomy performed between 6 and 24 hours in acute ischemic stroke. The current economic evidence is supporting the intervention only within 6 hours, but extended thrombectomy treatment times may result in better long-term outcomes for a larger cohort of patients. I’m Carmen Lahiff-Jenkins Managing Editor of the...

Cerebral microbleeds: beyond the macroscope  Deciphering the biological mechanisms leading to, or following microbleeds would enable us to address a key question: do microbleeds arise and impact the surrounding parenchyma like a miniature version of intracerebral haemorrhages or do they represent a different kind of injury? Carmen Lahiff-Jenkins, Managing Editor of the International Journal of Stroke spoke to Dr Vincent Berezowski from the Department of medical Pharmacology, Lille France,...

REstart or STop Antithrombotics Randomised Trial for oral anticoagulants. We talked results with Prof. Rustam Al-Shahi Salman from the University of Edinburgh.  

EndoVascular Treatment With Stent-retriever and/or Thromboaspiration vs. Best Medical Therapy in Acute Ischemic Stroke (RESILIENT) Drs. Shelia Martins and Raul Nogueira RESULTS! https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02216643