ESOC Session Report: Stroke in the Young

The Thursday morning session ‘Stroke in the Young’ was a very educative and interesting session chaired by Julia Ferrari and by Mirjam R. Heldner.

Anne-Mette Hvas was speaking about inherited and acquired thrombophilia, about lack of evidence for association between thrombophilia and ischaemic stroke, about impact of presence of thrombophilia on treatment strategies and about recommendation on thrombophilia testing in patients with ischaemic stroke.

Stéphanie Debette was speaking about when we should consider genetic causes of stroke in young adults.

Jani Pirinen talked about definite cardioembolic stroke and atrial fibrillation being rare in young patients, but cryptogenic stroke being frequent. In those patients, ECG-findings such as P-terminal force in V1, T-wave inversions, a wide QRS-T frontal angle, and a prolonged QT-time may indicate cardiomyopathy, heart failure and prior myocardial infarction.

Frank-Erik de Leeuw was speaking about stroke recurrence in young adults.

Maja Stefanovic-Budimkic was speaking about return to work after stroke. She demonstrated data from a matched cohort study with a median follow-up time of 3 years showing that IVT was an independent predictor of returning to full-time jobs after stroke and showing that around 2/5 in the IVT group vs. around 1/3 in the non-IVT group returned to paid work.

The high quality of the talks and the enthusiastic participation of the audience made this session a highlight of this year’s ESO conference.