ESOC 2018 – Poster Walk with Dr. Minhas

During a brief pause in today’s scientific sessions, Dr Jatinder Minhas took the opportunity to walk through the poster hall and reports. There were several emergent themes including blood pressure variability, stroke in the older person and various experimental stroke models. Several posters caught my eye including some important work on older stroke patients: Thrombectomy in the elderly: good initial neurological recovery does not translate into long term outcome – Rezai et al. (Norway). This particular study examined thrombectomy outcomes in elderly. Initial good neurological recovery in >80 year olds did not translate into longer term outcome. Factors associated with better thrombectomy outcome in young not entirely relevant to >80 year olds also. Furthermore, a fascinating NOAC study: Cerebral Ischemia in Patients on Non-Vitamin-K-Dependent Oral Anticoagulants: Through Plasma-Levels on Admission are Associated with Stroke Severity – Macha et al. (Germany) provides some very interesting data on plasma levels of NOACs on admission being associated with stroke severity. Low plasma NOAC levels on admission were independently associated with higher odds of a large vessel occlusion. This generates some interesting research directions. Continuing the stroke in the older person theme, the Thrombolysis over 80 years in the later time window: a hospital-based study – Bojti et al. (Hungary) provided further evidence that age is nothing but a number by demonstrating that AIS patients over 80 years treated with IVT at 3-4.5 hours compared to within 3 hours do not differ significantly in rates of ICH, sICH, mortality and functional independence at 3 months. Impressively, the mean age within the study was 86 years in each group. Lastly, a poster that is certainly topical and addresses an interesting question is the Vitamin D Deficiency and Stroke Risk in an Irish Population – McDonagh et al. (Ireland) – which showed that Vitamin D deficiency was prevalent within the Irish stroke population and particularly compared to other high risk cohorts and prompts us to consider this in our own respective patient groups.