On the 40th anniversary of the journal Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association, stroke leaders from around the world celebrated stroke research accomplishments and set an agenda for the future, according to a special report in the journal.
“The past 40 years have seen more advances in stroke than the previous four millennia,” said Vladimir Hachinski, M.D., editor of Stroke and distinguished university professor of neurology at the University of Western Ontario in London, Canada. “We’ve accomplished a lot but we need to accelerate that progress.”
Since 1970, stroke advances include: identification of stroke risk factors such as hypertension, evidence that anti-platelet drugs can prevent stroke, the formation of dedicated stroke units and the approval of a clot-busting drug to treat acute stroke.
For the journal anniversary, seven working groups of stroke leaders made recommendations for the future direction of stroke research on specific topics.
“The participants made prevention a top priority,” Hachinski said. “That’s where the biggest gaps currently are, and the largest potential gains for greater effort.
” Although …
At some point these stroke leaders will realize that while prevention may be the easiest, the stopping of neuronal cell death cascades will actually save more neurons. They haven’t really identified all the problem spots associated with stroke research diagnosis and rehabilitation. When all you have is tPA everything looks like a clot.