International Stroke Conference

Tuesday February 12 2013

• Embolectomy Gets No Help from Imaging

  Honolulu — Widely used in clinical practice despite a lack of evidence establishing efficacy, endovascular therapy has once again proven ineffective at improving outcomes when put to rigorous testing in patients with ischemic stroke.

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• Silent Afib May Be Behind Unexplained Stroke

  Honolulu — Long-term cardiac monitoring of patients with stroke of unknown origin can better identify subclinical atrial fibrillation compared with standard testing, the EMBRACE randomized trial found.

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• 'Time Is Brain' Also Applies to Endovascular Tx

  Honolulu — A substudy of the IMS-III trial has quantitatively shown for the first time that delays in endovascular therapy for ischemic stroke are linearly correlated with worse outcomes.

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Monday February 11 2013

• Imaging No Help in Endovascular Tx for Stroke

  Honolulu — Endovascular therapy in ischemic stroke patients was not superior to standard care, even when advanced imaging pinpointed viable tissue to target, the phase 2 MR RESCUE trial found.

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Sunday February 10 2013

• Surgery Plus tPA Boosts ICH Outcomes

  Honolulu — A minimally invasive procedure paired with tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) to remove blood clots in brain tissue after hemorrhagic stroke appears safe and effective, and may even lead to cost savings, a phase II trial suggested.

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• Antiplatelet Duo Helps After Minor Stroke

  Honolulu — In the months immediately after a minor stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA), adding clopidogrel to aspirin therapy cuts the risk of another stroke, a Chinese trial showed.

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Saturday February 9 2013

• Lowering BP May Cut Risk of Recurrent Stroke

  Honolulu — Treating patients with lacunar strokes to a systolic blood pressure target of less then 130 mm Hg was feasible and may have prevented recurrent strokes, a randomized trial showed.

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Friday February 8 2013

• Southern Diet Has Tight Grip on 'Stroke Belt'

  Honolulu — Deep-fried chicken, sweet tea, and other Southern fare may help explain why residents of the Southeastern U.S. historically have had about a 20% greater risk of stroke compared.

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• More Unfriendly Data Clouds Stroke Therapy

  Honolulu — Another study has come up short when trying to demonstrate the superiority of an intra-arterial approach for breaking up brain clots compared with standard systemic IV thrombolysis.

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• Pediatric Stroke, Seizures Linked

  Honolulu — Pediatric patients with spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhages commonly present with seizures, but that doesn't necessarily confer a long-term risk of epilepsy, researchers found.

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• Clot Remover Holds Up in Another Study

  Honolulu — The FDA-approved Solitaire FR (Flow Restoration) device was successful at opening blocked vessels in patients with an acute ischemic stroke and resulted in good outcomes, a nonrandomized study.

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• Vorapaxar No Help in Ischemic Stroke

  Honolulu — In patients with a recent history of ischemic stroke, adding the investigational antiplatelet vorapaxar to standard therapy for secondary prevention had no effect on vascular events and increased bleeding, a subanalysis of a randomized trial showed.

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• Lowering BP No Help in Brain Bleeds

  Honolulu — Aggressive blood pressure lowering did not help reduce the size of brain bleeds in patients with intracerebral hemorrhagic stroke, a randomized clinical trial found.

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Thursday February 7 2013

• Brain Bleeds Linked to Race

  Honolulu — The high rate of intracerebral hemorrhage among young Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders appears to be related to race, researchers suggested.

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• Cocaine-Induced Stroke Often Deadly

  Honolulu — Among patients with an aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage, recent cocaine use was associated with a greater chance of dying in the hospital, researchers found.

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• Indirect Costs High After Pediatric Stroke

  Honolulu — When a child has an ischemic stroke the entire family often pays the price, researchers found.

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• Intra-Arterial Clot Busting No Better than IV

  Honolulu — Attacking a brain clot directly through an artery did not improve outcomes compared with standard intravenous tissue plasminogen activator therapy, a clinical trial found.

  • Read MPT Article  
  • ACC Trial Summary - IMS III  
  • ACC Trial Summary - SYNTHESIS Expansion  

• Study: Check Brain Blood Flow in TBI

  Honolulu — Soldiers with traumatic brain injuries have high rates of cerebral vasospasm and intracranial hypertension detected with transcranial Doppler (TCD) ultrasound, researchers found.

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Tuesday February 5 2013

• Is Pot Smoking a Stroke Trigger?

  Honolulu — Middle age stroke patients were twice as likely to be pot smokers than healthy middle age controls, researchers found.

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• Sun, Sand Add to Science at Stroke Meeting

  Honolulu — Results of some of the trials presented at the International Stroke Conference here this week have the potential to significantly change clinical practice, according to conference chair Steven M. Greenberg, MD, PhD — and the venue's good too.

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