A one-year follow-up study into the course of depression after stroke.

Background: Stroke patients commonly suffer from neuropsychiatric disorders, such as depression, that negatively influence stroke outcome. Diagnosis, treatment and prevention of post-stroke psychiatric disorders including depression are under debate.

Objective: To study the course of depression after stroke.

How predictive is the MMSE for cognitive performance after stroke?

Cognitive deficits are commonly observed in stroke patients. Neuropsychological testing is time-consuming and not easy to administer after hospital discharge. Standardised screening measures are desirable.

The likelihood of decreasing strokes in atrial fibrillation patients by strict application of guidelines.

Aims: Despite the known increased stroke risk associated with AF and the benefit of oral anticoagulation (OAC) in high-risk patients, still approximately 20% of all ischaemic strokes are atrial fibrillation (AF) related. We aimed to evaluate the frequency of inappropriate anticoagulation in all patients admitted with AF associated ischaemic stroke and calculate the theoretical number of preventable strokes in case of proper guideline adherence and assess secondary stroke prevention at discharge.

Methods And Results: In this cross-sectional study, all patients with ischaemic strokes admitted to our hospital during May 2003-August 2006 in whom the diagnosis AF was either known or established during hospital stay were identified.

Prevalence of anticardiolipin antibodies in patient cohorts with distinct clinical manifestations of the antiphospholipid syndrome.

Clinical manifestations of antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) vary from venous and arterial thrombosis to pregnancy loss and pre-eclampsia (PEC). Our aims were to establish the prevalence of anticardiolipin antibodies (aCLA) in patients with clinical features of APS and to compare the reference ELISA method with the novel automated EliA aCLA assay. Serum samples from 1278 patients with either deep venous thrombosis (DVT), young stroke (YS), PEC, or multiple sclerosis (MS) were included.

The symptomatology of post-stroke depression: comparison of stroke and myocardial infarction patients.

Background: Depression is a frequent problem in stroke patients but, all too often, the problem goes unrecognized. How depression-like symptoms in post-stroke depression (PSD) should be interpreted is still subject to debate. If PSD has a distinct symptom profile of depression accompanying other chronic vascular somatic conditions then this could imply that PSD is a specific disease entity.