By Dr Linxin Li, Wolfson Centre for Prevention of Stroke and Dementia, Oxford University

The year 2020 has been challenging for many of us but it is always reassuring to see that good science continues. With everyone’s continuous and generous support, we have the final issue of the fifth year of the European Stroke Journal (ESJ) ready for presentation!

ESO members, don’t forget to check your post box or read the digital version.

In this issue with extra rich content, we included a holistic list of topics in the field of stroke research, covering different aspects from acute stroke to secondary prevention, and including not only high quality research about ischaemic stroke but also studies reporting on intracerebral haemorrhage (ICH) and cerebral venous thrombosis.

Here are some highlights:

If you are interested in acute stroke, you might want to check the proposed simulation techniques in the acute stroke setting from the ESO Simulation Committee. Alternatively, have a read of the post-hoc analysis of ECASS-4, which showed that in patients that presented within 4.5 and 9h of stroke onset or unknown time window, a DWI-FLAIR-mismatch in the ischaemic region could be potentially used as a surrogate parameter for patient selection for thrombolysis.

As one of the key areas of interest in secondary prevention, we present two papers looking at different approaches to tackle anticoagulation for atrial fibrillation after stroke: an international collaboration reporting timing of initiation in posterior versus anterior circulation strokes and one study proposing a nomogram to predict unfavourable outcomes in such patients.

Finally, for those that are interested in sex differences in the management and prognosis of ICH, the investigators of INTERACT trials 1 and 2 reported a detailed analysis in this issue of ESJ with a short summary also available on the ESO blog.

For the full contents of the ESJ 5:4 issue go to: https://journals.sagepub.com/toc/esoa/current

Hope you enjoy it and look forward to another fruitful year ahead for everyone!