Stroke and Cerebrovascular Diseases Registry

Stroke is the fifth cause of all-cause mortality in US http://www.cdc.gov/stroke/facts.htm Early identification and treatment not only prevent mortality but also morbidity. Recent advancement in the imaging and diagnostic technique and novel therapeutic modalities has dramatically helped to downgrade stroke from the list of top mortality index in the last 3 years. However, studies determining factors which help predict stroke outcome are still underway and much work needs to be done in this direction. Many factors currently are used to predict stroke outcome with varying results, for e.g. NIHSS is a good predictor of stroke outcome at 3 months; however, the investigators need better predictors, outcome scales or outcome measures which are easy, reliable and has better specificity and sensitivity.

Acute Brain injury, Transient Ischemic Attack is a special category of a neurological condition wherein there is an impending devastating outcome if workup is not completed in a timely fashion. There is an urgent need to do investigations with high-risk patients to prevent stroke and further mortality and morbidity. The abcd2 score can help us to risk stratify the TIA and to predict the chances of stroke in this specific cohort. However, investigators need better identifiers than already present, to improve the patient changes in secondary prophylaxis of stroke prevention http://www.stroke.org/sites/default/files/resources/tia-abcd2-tool.pdf?docID

There is also some correlation of clinical and biochemical predictors in subarachnoid, cerebral venous thrombosis including Hunt and Hess, SAH score, WFNS-SAH grading among others with variable predictive quality. (Rosen et al; Neurocritical Care; April 2005, Volume 2, Issue 2, pp 110-118: Subarachnoid hemorrhage grading scales).