A Walk Among Posters at ESOC 2018
by Giuseppe Reale
ESOC charms you with astonishing large trials and milestones results. However, it is important to remember that research is filled with wrong steps. Stroke clinical practice too. Indeed, it is important to learn from mistakes, as FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH STROKE MISDIAGNOSIS IN THE EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT (ED): A RETROSPECTIVE CASE-CONTROL STUDY (Cordato et al) teaches us. This poster gives us a good overview about confounding factors in the evaluation of acute neurological symptoms. But, if you do not want to look at the past and think about the future, you cannot miss the following posters. Stroke epidemiology is changing and new categories of patients come to physicians’ attention, as stated in the poster STROKE IN HIV INFECTED PATIENTS. IS IT MORE FREQUENT AND ARE THEY ATTENDED WORSE? (de Arce Borda et al.), showing different characteristics of HIV-affected stroke patients and disparities in the access to clinical assistance. Nonetheless, stroke diagnostic is chasing new horizons. On one hand, informatics and computational technologies allow us to use in a new way old tools, such as transcranial doppler (give a look to the poster entitled ACUTE ISCHEMIC STROKE: A NOVEL DIAGNOSTIC ALGORITHM BASED ON TRANSCRANIAL DOPPLER CURVATURE AND VELOCITY ASYMMETRY ASSESSMENT OF THE MIDDLE CEREBRAL ARTERIES by Thorpe et al.). On the other hand, basic research is going to change even pathophysiology stroke paradigms. For example, inflammation is a new trend topic, as you may read in INTERLEUKIN-6 (IL-6) IS A POTENTIAL BIOMARKER OF PLAQUE-DERIVED SYSTEMIC INFLAMMATION IN PATIENTS WITH TRANSIENT ISCHAEMIC ATTACK AND CAROTID STENOSIS (Coveney et al) and PHENOTYPIC AND FUNCTIONAL CHARACTERIZATION OF HUMAN CIRCULATING NEUTROPHILS IN ACUTE PHASE OF ISCHEMIC STROKE (Weisenburger-Lile et al.) posters. Stroke circulating biomarkers will be used in the near future too: in this view, look at the promising results of ASSOCIATION BETWEEN CIRCULATING PLASMA CONCENTRATIONS OF MESENCEPHALIC ASTROCYTE-DERIVED NEUROTROPHIC FACTOR (MANF) AND LONG-TERM OUTCOMES AFTER ISCHEMIC STROKE (Lagging et al). The fascinating brain connectivity has its own space too at ESOC poster area: NETWORK LESION MAPPING IN PURE MOTOR CHRONIC ISCHAEMIC STROKE PATIENTS IDENTIFIES DISRUPTIONS IN GLOBAL AND LOCAL NETWORK ARCHITECTURE (Schlemm et al) provides an interesting MRI-based approach to evaluate functional-connectivity changes after ischemic stroke.
If you prefer to remain in the present and to improve your skills in stroke assessment and follow-up, do not forget to read the interesting results of FACTORS PREDICTING RISK OF 30-DAY RECURRENCE AFTER ISCHEMIC STROKE OR TIA: THE BERGEN NORSTROKE STUDY (Khanevski et al) and COMORBIDITY OF CEREBRAL INFARCTS AND MALIGNANCIES: A 12-YEAR NATIONWIDE ANALYSIS IN HUNGARY (Bereczki et al).
