Author Interviews, Circadian Rhythm, Endocrinology, Lifestyle & Health, Occupational Health, Sleep Disorders, Stroke / 02.06.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: David Earnest, Ph.D. Professor in the Department of Neuroscience and Experimental Therapeutics Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Earnest: When body clocks are disrupted, as they are when people engage in shift work or go to bed and get up at radically different times every few days, more severe ischemic strokes can result. MedicalResearch.com: What should readers take away from your report? Dr. Earnest:  Whenever possible, go to bed and get up at the same time each day and keep regular mealtimes. If you do need to keep an irregular schedule, it is especially important to be mindful of stroke risk and try especially hard to eliminate other risk factors, such as hypertension and obesity. (more…)
AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Race/Ethnic Diversity, Stroke / 12.05.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Lucas Ramirez, M.D Resident Physician | LAC-USC Medical Center USC Keck School of Medicine | Class of 2013  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Ramirez: Prior studies have shown differences in stroke rates in certain geographical regions among age and racial groups. Few studies have analyzed these differences on a national level.  Our study found that nationally, stroke hospitalization have decreased, though among blacks and young age groups, they have increased. (more…)
Author Interviews, NEJM, Stroke / 10.05.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Professor Craig Anderson Professor of Stroke Medicine and Clinical Neuroscience Sydney Medical School at the University of Sydney Institute of Neurosciences of Royal Prince Alfred Hospital MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Prof. Anderson: Intravenous use of the clot-busting drug, alteplase (or rtPA), at a dose of 0.9 mg/kg body weight is the only proven medical treatment of acute ischemic stroke.  However, a  major drawback to the treatment is an increased risk of major bleeding in the brain, or intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), that occurs in about 5% of cases, and can be fatal.  This balance of effectiveness (recovery from disability) and risks (ICH, and bleeding elsewhere and uncommon drug allergic reactions) has led to much of the controversy over the net benefit of the drug.  The optimal dose of the drug has never been established, but the Japanese drug safety regulatory authority, has approved a lower dose (0.6mg/kg) on the basis of a small, non-randomized, open study which showed comparable outcomes and lower risk of ICH than historical controls.  This ‘east-west’ divide over the approved dose of alteplase has led to much variation in the dose of alteplase used in clinical practice in Asia – according to a doctor’s perceived risk of ICH in individual patients and the affordability of this relatively expensive treatment in low resource settings.  Data from the Get-with-the Guidelines Quality Registry in the United States suggests Asian patients are at higher risk of ICH after standard-dose alteplase than non-Asians. Our research aimed to resolve this uncertainty over the optimal dose of alteplase, as an international, active-comparator, open-label, blinded outcome assessed, clinical trial of low-dose (0.6 mg/kg) versus standard-dose (0.9mg/kg) in 3310 patients recruited from over 100 hospitals in 13 countries between 2012 and 2015. (more…)
Author Interviews, Heart Disease, JAMA, Stroke / 04.05.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Ben Freedman OAM  Deputy Director Research Strategy, Heart Research Institute/Charles Perkins Centre Professor of Cardiology, Sydney Medical School Head Vascular Biology Anzac Research Institute Honorary VMO, Concord Repatriation General Hospital University of Sydney MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Dr. Freedman: Guidelines recommend that patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) at high enough risk for stroke should be treated with anticoagulant. Anticoagulant drugs are remarkably effective in reducing stroke risk by about two thirds, and death by between a quarter and a third. Unfortunately, strokes can still occur when patients are prescribed anticoagulant for Atrial Fibrillation, and it is often presumed this residual risk of stroke represents treatment failure, though there are few data about this important issue. MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings? Dr. Freedman: We were able to compare the risk of stroke in a cohort of patients with AF commenced on anticoagulant, with a very large closely-matched cohort seen in general practice at the same time but without AF. This is a unique comparison. We found that the residual risk of stroke in such anticoagulant-treated patients was virtually identical to that in the matched control cohort. The implication is that the residual risk of stroke may not be treatment failure, but the risk of non-cardioembolic stroke in people of a similar age and stroke risk profile but without Atrial Fibrillation. The residual risk of death in those on anticoagulant was higher than the matched controls, and intermediate between the control rate and the mortality rate for untreated AF. (more…)
Author Interviews, Outcomes & Safety, Stroke / 25.04.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Mathew J. Reeves, PhD Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics Michigan State University East Lansing, MI  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Reeves:   The transfer of stroke patients with ischemic stroke to primary and comprehensive stroke centers so they can receive specialized care including tPA (thrombolysis) and endovascular (catheter based) care is becoming increasingly important with the release or trial data showing substantial benefit for endovascular treatment in eligible patients.   A major goal of integrated stroke systems of care is to ensure that stroke patients requiring specialized care beyond the capability of the initial hospital are identified and transferred to a specialist center as quickly as possible.   Surprisingly, there is relatively little written about the frequency and outcomes of stroke patients who are transferred between hospitals, especially in the context of large quality improvement registries such as the Coverdell Stroke Registry or Get-With-The- Guidelines- Stroke (more…)
Author Interviews, JAMA, Stroke / 20.04.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Georgios Tsivgoulis MD Department of Neurology, The University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis Second Department of Neurology, Attikon Hospital, School of Medicine, University of Athens, Athens, Greece Medical Research: What is the background for this study? Dr. Tsivgoulis: Cerebral microbleeds (CMBs) have been established as an independent predictor of cerebral bleeding, but there are contradictory data regarding the potential association of CMB burden with the risk of symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage (sICH) in acute ischemic stroke (AIS) patients treated with intravenous thrombolysis (IVT). Medical Research:  What are the main findings? Dr. Tsivgoulis: We analyzed data from 9 prospective cohort studies, comprising 2479 total AIS patients, to investigate the association of high cerebral microbleed burden (>10 CMBs on pre-IVT MRI-scan) with the risk of sICH following IVT for AIS from. The risk of sICH after IVT was found to be higher in patients with evidence of CMB presence, compared to patients without CMBs, while a higher risk for sICHafter IVT was also detected in patients with high CMB burden (>10 CMBs), when compared to patients with 0-10 or 1-10 CMBs on pre-treatment MRI. In the individual patient data meta-analysis, high CMB burden was associated with increased likelihood of sICH before and after adjusting for potential confounders. (more…)
Author Interviews, Blood Pressure - Hypertension, Heart Disease, JACC, Stroke / 06.04.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Kazuomi Kario, MD, PhD, FACP, FACC, FAHA, FESC Professor, Chairman Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Department of Medicine Jichi Medical University School of Medicine (JMU) JMU Center of Excellence, Cardiovascular Research and Development (JCARD) Hypertension Cardiovascular Outcome Prevention and Evidence in Asia (HOPE Asia) Network Staff Visiting Professor of Medicine, UCL Institute of Cardiovascular Science University College London, London UK MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Kario: The relationship between out-of-office blood pressure (BP), such as ambulatory BP and home BP, and cardiovascular events has been investigated in several studies. However, there is insufficient evidence as yet regarding which BP measurement predicts coronary artery disease (CAD) events most strongly. The HONEST Study is the largest prospective observational study in the world, which enrolled >20,000 hypertensive patients. The study observed cardiovascular events, monitoring both clinic BP and home BP on treatment of antihypertensive agent. The present analysis shows that home BP measured in morning (morning home BP) is a strong predictor of both CAD and stroke events in future, and may be superior to clinic BP in this regard. Furthermore, there does not appear to be a J-curve in the relationship between morning home BP and CAD or stroke events. (more…)
Author Interviews, Brigham & Women's - Harvard, JAMA, Stroke / 04.03.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Hakan Ay MD, FAHA Associate Professor of Neurology and Radiology Stroke Service, Department of Neurology Director of Stroke Research, A.A. Martinos Center, Department of Radiology Massachusetts General Hospital Harvard Medical School Boston MA, USA Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Ay: Recurrent stroke is an important public health problem. One quarter of all strokes are recurrent strokes. Approximately one out of every 10 patients with stroke develops a second stroke within the next 2 years. The most critical period for recurrence after stroke is the first 90 days; approximately half of recurrent strokes that occur within 2 years occur within the first 90 days. The RRE tool was developed at the Massachusetts General Hospital in 2010 to assess the 90-day risk of recurrent stroke. The RRE was subsequently tested in a separate cohort of patients with transient stroke symptoms (mini strokes) admitted to the Massachusetts General Hospital in 2011. The current study expands upon prior two studies by showing that the RRE tool provides reliable risk estimates when tested in cohorts of patients recruited from different academic centers in various parts of the world. The study reports that the RRE can stratify approximately one-half of patients with stroke either at high-risk or at low-risk with a reasonable accuracy. (more…)
Author Interviews, Neurological Disorders, Stroke / 29.02.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Georgios Tsivgoulis , M.D., Ph.D., MSc, FESO Assistant Professor of Neurology University of Athens, Athens, Greece Visiting Associate Professor of Neurology Director of Stroke Research Department of Neurology University of Tennessee Health Science Center Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Tsivgoulis: Literature data suggest that taking statins before an acute ischemic stroke may improve early outcomes including early neurological deterioration, mortality and disability in patients with acute ischemic stroke. However,the potential beneficial effect of statin pretreatment has never been investigated in acute ischemic stroke due to large artery atherosclerosis. The research question in this specific subgroup of ischemic stroke patients is of great importance, as large-artery atherosclerotic stroke carries the highest risk of early recurrent stroke in comparison to other acute ischemic stroke subtypes. Using prospectively collected data from over 516 consecutive patients with acute large-artery atherosclerotic stroke from seven tertiary-care stroke centers during a three-year period we found that statin pretreatment in patients with acute large-artery atherosclerotic stroke is associated with better early outcomes in terms of neurological improvement, disability, survival and stroke recurrence. (more…)
Author Interviews, Compliance, Neurological Disorders, Stroke / 23.02.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr-William-Patrick-Neil William P. Neil, MD Vascular Neurologist SCPMG Regional Stroke Champion Neurology    Medical Research: What is the background for this study? Dr. Neil: Stroke survivors are less likely to have a recurrent stroke, or other complications if they take their medications as prescribed by their doctor. Mail order pharmacies are increasingly being used to deliver medications for a variety of diseases, and their use is associated with better medication adherence.  We wanted to see whether stroke patients who use mail-order pharmacies were more likely to have good medication adherence than those who used  local pharmacies. Medical Research: What are the main findings? Dr. Neil: We looked through a large electronic medical database in California, and found a total of 48,746 people discharged from the hospital with a stroke, and who also filled either a cholesterol medication or an anticoagulant (blood thinner). Of these, 136,722 refills were from a local pharmacy and 68,363 were by mail. Overall, patients were adherent to the medications 46.5% of the time if they picked up the medication from the pharmacy and 74% of the time if they had prescriptions mailed to them. (more…)
Author Interviews, Heart Disease, Stroke / 22.02.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Rolf Wachter Head Senior physician University of Goettingen Göttingen, Germany Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Wachter: Atrial Fibrillation is a known risk factor for stroke, and in stroke patients, it is a strong predictor of adverse outcome, if it is not adequately treated (e.g. by anticoagulation). However, in its paroxysmal form, Atrial Fibrillation (AF) may escape routine diagnostics. We aimed to show that we can increase the number of patients with detected AF if we do more monitoring for atrial fibrillation. As a unique feature of our study, we did not focus on a certain stroke subtype (i.e. cryptogenic stroke), but we aimed to consider all patients >= 60 years in whom the detection of  Atrial Fibrillation has a clinical relevance. The main finding of our study was that enhanced and prolonged Holter ECG monitoring (3x10 days of monitoring, analysed in a dedicated core lab) tripled the number of detected AF cases (from 4.5 to 13.5 %). 11 patients had to undergo enhanced and prolonged monitoring to find one additional case of Atrial Fibrillation. (more…)
Author Interviews, Clots - Coagulation, Stroke / 21.02.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Thorsten Steiner, MD, PhD Klinikum Frankfurt Hoechst and Heidelberg University Hospital Germany Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Steiner: Background of the study is intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) related to vitamin-K antagonists. The mortality rate is about 60%. Main reason for the high mortality rate is hematoma expansion which occurs in about 50% during the acute phase right after the start of symptoms. We performed an investigator initiated randomized controlled trial (RCT) and found that a 4-factor prothrombin complex (PCC) is superior to fresh frozen plasma (FFP) in normalizing the international normalized ratio (INR) and prevents hematoma expansion. This let to more deaths within 48 hours in the FFP-group but had no clinical impact at 3 months - but our study was powered to detect INR normalization and not a clinical endpoint. (more…)
Author Interviews, Gender Differences, Race/Ethnic Diversity, Stroke, Wake Forest / 20.02.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Cheryl Bushnell, MD, MHS Professor of Neurology Director, Wake Forest Baptist Stroke Center Wake Forest Baptist Health Medical Center Boulevard Winston Salem, NC  27157  Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Bushnell: The catalyst for the study was to see if comorbidities and the management of them might influence functional status.  But, we pre-specified gender and race because we knew these could be important predictors of outcome.  As it turns out, the results of our analysis did, in fact, show that gender and race were the most significant predictors of poor functional outcome. Medical Research: What should clinicians and patients take away from your report? Dr. Bushnell: The take-home message is that women and minorities have poorer functional outcome after stroke, but the reasons for this outcome need to be further explored.  Our model showed that we only explained 31% of the variance in SIS-16 with gender, race/ethnicity, and stroke severity, so unmeasured factors are extremely important.  We could speculate from this dataset and other published data that women may be more likely to have functional deficits prior to stroke, be unmarried/widowed, live alone, or institutionalized after stroke.  Non-white stroke survivors may have poorer access to care, have multiple strokes, and more comorbidities. (more…)
Author Interviews, Epilepsy, Neurological Disorders, Stroke / 20.02.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Alexander Merkler, MD Fellow in neuro critical care Weill Cornell Medical College and New York-Presbyterian Hospital, New York Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Merkler:  Patients with stroke often ask about what type of problems they may expect in the future. As neurologists, we often warm our patients about the risk for recurrent stroke, infections, clots, eating difficulty, and depression. Although seizures are a well-known complication of stroke, there was little data regarding the long-term rate of seizures in patients who have a stroke. Therefore, we sought to evaluate the long-term risk of seizures following stroke in order to better advise physicians and patients on the likelihood of developing seizures after suffering a stroke. We identified over 600,000 patients with stroke and found that the rate of seizures after stroke is high – 15.3% of all patients with stroke will develop seizures. Patients who have hemorrhagic stroke face an even higher rate of seizures – 24% of patients with hemorrhagic type stroke will develop seizures. The rate of seizures after ischemic stroke was significantly higher than previous literature - 13.5% of patients with an ischemic stroke had a seizure in our study. (more…)
Author Interviews, Mayo Clinic, Stroke / 19.02.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Thomas G. Brott, M.D. Professor of neurology and director for research and The Eugene and Marcia Applebaum Professor of Neurosciences and James C. and Sarah K. Kennedy Dean for Research. Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Brott: Revascularization for carotid artery stenosis is the accepted treatment for symptomatic patients with >50% stenosis and for asymptomatic patients with >70% stenosis.  The original CREST report in 2010 showed both surgery and stenting were the safe methods to treat severe carotid stenosis.  But the follow-up averaged 2.5 years and Medicare-age patients live for an average of 18-20 years.  These patients and their families needed to know if surgery and stenting are durable in preventing stroke. CREST was designed to answer the questions of clinical and anatomic durability for the long-run. (more…)
Author Interviews, Blood Pressure - Hypertension, OBGYNE, Stroke / 19.02.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Adnan Qureshi MD Professor of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Radiology University of Minnesota  Medical Research: What is the background for this study? Dr. Quershi: Women who have the last pregnancy at advanced age (usually defined as pregnancy at age of 40 years or greater) have higher risk of developing hypertension, hypertension related disorders, and diabetes mellitus during pregnancy. There is some evidence that disproportionately higher rates of cardiovascular risk factors continue years after the pregnancy. Perhaps there are unknown medical conditions triggered during pregnancy at advanced age. These changes continue to progress without being clinically evident until years later manifesting as a cardiovascular event. Medical Research: What are the main findings? Dr. Quershi: We analyzed the data for 72,221 women aged 50-79 years who were enrolled in the observational arm of the Women's Health Initiative Study. We determined the effect of pregnancy in advanced age (last pregnancy at age≥40 year) on risk of ischemic stroke, hemorrhagic stroke, myocardial infarction, and cardiovascular death over a mean period  of 12 years. A total of 3306 (4.6%) of the 72,221 participants reported pregnancy in advanced age. Compared with pregnancy in normal age, the rate of ischemic stroke (2.4% versus 3.8%, p<0.0001), hemorrhagic stroke (0.5% versus 1.0%, p<0.0001), myocardial infarction (2.5% versus 3.0%, p<0.0001), and cardiovascular death (2.3% versus 3.9%, p<0.0001) was significantly higher among women with pregnancy in advanced age. In multivariate analysis, women with pregnancy in advanced age were 60% more likely to experience a hemorrhagic stroke even after adjusting for differences in age, race/ethnicity, congestive heart failure, systolic blood pressure, atrial fibrillation, alcohol use and cigarette smoking were adjusted. (more…)
Author Interviews, Stroke / 18.02.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Michael D Hill, MD MSc FRCPC Calgary Stroke Program Professor, Dept Clinical Neurosciences Hotchkiss Brain Institute Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary Calgary, Canada  Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Hill: The HERMES collaboration is a pooled analysis of 5 randomized controlled trials of endovascular stroke therapy.  The purpose is of this analysis is to assess the relationship between time from stroke onset and effect size. The main finding is that there is a declining effect size as time elapses from stroke onset.  Shorter onset to reperfusion times are associated with better outcomes.  However, the slope of the decline is shallow compared to past estimates.  We believe this is because imaging selection identifies a group a patients in whom there is slow growth of the core infarct. (more…)
Alzheimer's - Dementia, Author Interviews, Dental Research, Infections, Stroke / 18.02.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Robert Friedland MD Mason C. and Mary D. Rudd Endowed Chair In Neurology Professor, Dept. of Neurology University of Louisville Health Care Outpatient Center Louisville, KY 40292 Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Robert Friedland: Oral infectious diseases are associated with stroke. Previous research by this group has shown that oral bacteria, cnm-positive Streptococcus mutans, was associated with cerebral microbleeds and intracerebral hemorrhage. We developed this study to investigate the roles of this bacteria in patients entering the hospital for all types of stroke. Among the patients who experienced intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), 26 percent were found to have a specific bacterium in their saliva, cnm-positive S. mutans. Among patients with other types of stroke, only 6 percent tested positive for the bacterium. We also evaluated MRIs of study subjects for the presence of cerebral microbleeds (CMB), small brain hemorrhages which may cause dementia and also often underlie ICH. We found that the number of CMBs was significantly higher in subjects with cnm-positive S. mutans than in those without. (more…)
Author Interviews, Duke, Exercise - Fitness / 18.02.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Richard Moon, MD, CM, MSc, FRCP(C), FACP, FCCP Medical Director, Hyperbaric Center Professor of Anesthesiology Department / Division Anesthesiology / GVTU Division Medicine / Pulmonary Duke University School of Medicine Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Moon: This study was performed to investigate the reason why young, fit individuals develop a condition usually associated with severe heart disease: pulmonary edema. Immersion pulmonary edema (also known as swimming-induced pulmonary edema, SIPE) develops in certain susceptible individuals while swimming or scuba diving, usually in cold water. Some SIPE-susceptible people include highly conditioned triathletes and Navy SEAL trainees. The prevalence of SIPE in triathletes is around 1.5%, and in open sea swimming trials in naval special forces trainees has been reported to be 1.8-60%. SIPE often requires hospitalization and has caused death. Medical Research: What should clinicians and patients take away from your report? Dr. Moon: We directly measured arterial pressure, pulmonary artery pressure (PAP) and PA wedge pressure (PAWP) during submersed exercise in cold water. We found that both PAP and PAWP were higher in swimming-induced pulmonary edema-susceptible individuals compared with a group of volunteers of similar age who had never experienced SIPE. This confirmed that SIPE is a form of hemodynamic pulmonary edema, which is curious since all of the people we studied had normal hearts. We hypothesized that the cause could be differences between the groups in venous tone or LV diastolic compliance. When we retested the SIPE-susceptibles under the same conditions after a dose of sildenafil, pulmonary artery pressures were decreased, with no adverse effects on hemodynamics. We concluded that by dilating pulmonary vessels and systemic venous sildenafil could be an effective prophylaxis against SIPE.  (more…)
AHA Journals, Author Interviews, NEJM, Surgical Research / 18.02.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. William A Gray, MD Chief of the Division of Cardiovascular Disease Main Line Health President of Main Line Health’s Lankenau Heart Institute  Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Gray: The basis for this study was two-fold: the ACST-1 trial had shown, in asymptomatic patients with severe carotid disease, that immediate Carotid Endarterectomy reduced subsequent stroke as compared to deferred Carotid Endarterectomy---so the next logical question was, could Carotid Artery Stenting (CAS) compare as an equal alternative to Carotid Endarterectomy (CEA) in this same, standard risk, population with severe carotid stenosis. The CREST trial, as originally constructed and at the time ACT 1 was conceived did not include this population (although it later expanded to encompass asymptomatic patients as well), so it was an open question. The second reason had to do with Abbott Vascular, the study sponsor, achieving FDA regulatory approval for their stent system in this population---as well as in the symptomatic population being studied n CREST (which they were also the device sponsor). The main findings were that the primary endpoint of death/stroke and MI at 30 days plus ipsilateral stroke out to 1 and 5 years was not different between CAS and CEA in asymptomatic patients with severe carotid stenosis on good medical secondary prevention therapy. (more…)
Author Interviews, Pain Research / 17.02.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Souvik Sen, MD, MS, MPH, FAHA Professor and Chair,  Neurology Department, South Carolina Smart State Endowed Stroke Chair University of South Carolina School of Medicine  Medical Research: What was the catalyst for conducting this study examining the association between migraine with aura and ischemic stroke subtypes? Dr. Souvik Sen: South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia are located in the “buckle” of the stroke belt, with one of the highest stroke related death rates in the country. An unfortunate trend is that younger patients are having strokes leading to death and disability. As a part of the workup for young stroke we are interested in migraine with aura and the type of stroke associated with this condition. Medical Research: What did you conclude as a result of the findings and how did they compare with your expectations at the beginning of the study? (more…)
Author Interviews, JAMA, Stroke / 07.01.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Michael F. Waters, MD, PhD Department of Neurology Department of Neuroscience McKnight Brain Institute University of Florida College of Medicine Gainesville, Florida Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Waters: This study was based on a subgroup of medically managed patients with severe, symptomatic, intracranial, atherosclerotic disease. Historically we know that these patients have a very high rate of additional strokes, and multiple studies have attempted to determine the best management for these patients. In SAMMPRIS, we were able to prove that aggressive medical management was superior to stenting in these patients. However, certain patients in the medically managed group still had a very high rate of repeat strokes, as much as 30% of those with certain risk factors. This study was an attempt to identify those risk factors to determine which patients were at the greatest risk for another stroke. (more…)
Author Interviews, Beth Israel Deaconess, CT Scanning, JAMA, Neurological Disorders, Stroke / 04.01.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Sandeep Kumar, MD Assistant Professor of Neurology Harvard Medical School Director, Inpatient Stroke Service Department of Neurology, Stroke Division Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Boston, MA 02215 Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Kumar: Transient deficits that start suddenly and typically last for a few minutes to a few hours are the hallmark of a transient ischemic attack (TIA) or a minor ischemic stroke. In this single-center observational study, we have reported similar clinical presentation in some patients with intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) that are difficult to distinguish from cerebral ischemia based only on clinical signs and symptoms. (more…)
AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Education, Heart Disease, Stroke / 23.12.2015

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Carole Decker, RN, PhD, CPHQ, FAHA Director, Cardiovascular Outcomes Research Saint Luke's Mid America Heart Institute Kansas City, MO 64111 Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Decker: Stroke is the leading cause of disability and the fifth leading cause of death. The utilization of thrombolytic therapy is the national standard of care for acute ischemic stroke (AIS) treatment resulting in improved outcomes at 90 days and yet only 7% of patients with AIS receive a thrombolytic. The American College of Emergency Physicians emphasizes the importance of using a shared medical decision-making model with AIS patients and their caregivers to discuss benefits and risks of treatment. The recommended door-to-needle (emergency door to thrombolytic administration) is 60 minutes to achieve the optimal patient outcomes which can be problematic in that conversation on benefits and risks occurs in a hurried emergency setting. Multiple risk models to identify individualized benefits and risks of thrombolytic therapy have been developed but few are used prospectively and are not used at the point of care. Our team created ePRISM (Personalized Risk Information Services Manager), a Web-based tool, to generate personalized documents with patient-specific outcomes based on validated risks models. To support knowledge transfer and creation of a shared decision-making tool, our multidisciplinary team conducted qualitative interviews to define the information needs and preferred presentation format for stroke survivors, caregivers, and clinicians considering thrombolytic treatment. (more…)
Author Interviews, JAMA, MRI, Stroke / 22.12.2015

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Sepideh Amin-Hanjani, MD FAANS FACS FAHA Professor & Program Director Co-Director, Neurovascular Surgery Department of Neurosurgery University of Illinois at Chicago Past Chair, AANS/CNS Cerebrovascular Section  Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Amin-Hanjani: Posterior circulation strokes account for up to 30% of all ischemic strokes, and atherosclerotic occlusive disease of the vertebrobasilar (VB) is responsible for approximately one third of these cases. Symptomatic atherosclerotic VB occlusive disease is associated with a high risk of recurrent stroke despite medical therapy, in the range of 10-15% within 2 years. There have been advances in treatment options, particularly endovascular angioplasty and stenting, aimed at reverting the blockage; however these procedures themselves carry risks, and are likely to benefit only selected patients who are at highest risk without intervention. Our study, VERiTAS, aimed to determine if measurement of blood flow in the posterior circulation vessels could identify the high risk patients. Flow measurements were performed using the technique of quantitative magnetic resonance angiography (QMRA) relying on standard MR sequences and  the commercial software NOVA. These flow measurements were used to designate patients presenting with symptomatic vertebrobasilar disease as flow compromised or not, and patients were then followed for a median of 23 months in a blinded fashion to determine the risk of subsequent strokes. We found that among 72 such patients, only one quarter (18 patients) demonstrated flow compromise on QMRA, but that this group had a significantly higher risk of subsequent stroke at one year, 22% vs only 4% in the other group. The hazard ratio for subsequent stroke was markedly elevated at 11.5 even after adjusting for age and other stroke risk factors. (more…)
Author Interviews, Gender Differences, Heart Disease, JAMA, Stroke / 23.11.2015

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Bob Siegerink PhD Frits R. Rosendaal MD, PhD Department of Clinical Epidemiology Leiden University Medical Center Leiden, the Netherlands Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: The rates of death due to arterial thrombosis have been declining in the past years, which means that there are more patients with a high burden of disease. Arterial thrombosis is a uncommon disease in the young, but the burden of the disease might have a profound impact on their lives. We analyzed data form the RATIO study, in which we followed women with a ischemic stroke and myocardial infarction for up to 20 years. During this time, overall mortality was 2-4 times higher compared to the general population. This increase in risk was mainly driven by deaths from acute vascular events and persisted over the whole course of the follow up. (more…)