Characteristics of Patients With Asymptomatic Atrial Fibrillation and Ischemic Stroke-Insights From the GLORIA-AF Registry (Phase 2).

Background: Asymptomatic nonvalvular atrial fibrillation is often suspected in patients with cryptogenic stroke which constitute 20%-30% of ischemic strokes. Detection of atrial fibrillation (AF) and treatment with anticoagulation can reduce the risk of stroke. We sought to investigate the prevalence of asymptomatic atrial fibrillation (aAF) in patients with a history of stroke or an acute stroke on admission.

Generalized anxiety is a predictor of impaired quality of life in patients with atrial fibrillation: Findings from the prospective observational ARENA study.

Objective: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is associated with impaired health-related quality of life (HRQoL), an increased risk of morbidity, and mortality. Traditional AF-related outcomes (e.g.

The impact of regional deprivation on stroke incidence, treatment, and mortality in Germany.

Background: Regional deprivation has been shown to be an influential factor in stroke incidence risk. However, there is a paucity of knowledge on regional differences in stroke incidence and mortality in Germany.

Methods: We assessed data from the Diagnosis Related Groups statistics (2016-2019) and the German Federal Registry of Physicians (2019).

Symptom Severity and Health-Related Quality of Life in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation: Findings from the Observational ARENA Study.

Background: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained cardiac arrhythmia and is associated with impaired health-related quality of life (HRQoL), high symptom severity, and poor cardiovascular outcomes. Both clinical and psychological factors may contribute to symptom severity and HRQoL in AF.

Methods: Using data from the observational Atrial Fibrillation Rhine-Neckar Region (ARENA) trial, we identified medical and psychosocial factors associated with AF-related symptom severity using European Heart Rhythm Association symptom classification and HRQoL using 5-level EuroQoL- 5D.

[Position paper on stroke aftercare of the German Stroke Society-Part 1: long-term care after stroke: status quo of the reality and deficits of care in Germany].

The acute treatment of stroke patients in Germany is of a very high standard, guaranteed by its system of stroke units. Stroke as a disease has an acute phase followed by a chronic phase that requires a high level of qualified aftercare given by multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary teams. In 2020, the German Stroke Society (DSG) founded a commission for long-term stroke care.

[Position paper on stroke aftercare of the German Stroke Society-Part 3: structural concepts for future forms of care of stroke aftercare].

Background: Irrespective of the great impact stroke exerts on the society as a whole and far-reaching advances in acute treatment and rehabilitation of stroke, so far outpatient services for post-stroke care have not been established on a national level in Germany.

Objective And Methods: Against the background of this contemporary lack of care, in May 2020 the German Stroke Society (DSG) established the stroke aftercare commission. This position paper discusses structural models of future services addressing outpatient post-stroke care.

[Position paper on stroke aftercare of the German Stroke Society-Part 2: concept for a comprehensive stroke aftercare].

Long-term management after stroke has not been standardized in contrast to acute and rehabilitative stroke care. The fragmented outpatient sector of healthcare allows a high degree of flexibility but also variability in the quality of care provided. The commission on long-term stroke care of the German Stroke Society developed a concept on how to provide standardized multiprofessional long-term stroke care with a focus on patient-centered comprehensive care.

Trial design and pilot phase results of a cluster-randomised intervention trial to improve stroke care after hospital discharge - The structured ambulatory post-stroke care program (SANO).

Introduction: Previous studies showed insufficient control of cardiovascular risk factors (CVRF) and high stroke recurrence rates among ischemic stroke patients in Germany. Currently, no structured secondary prevention program exists in clinical routine. We present the trial design and pilot phase results of a complex intervention to improve stroke care after hospital discharge in Germany.

Cross-sectional study on patients' understanding and views of the informed consent procedure of a secondary stroke prevention trial.

Background And Purpose: Improving understanding of study contents and procedures might enhance recruitment into studies and retention during follow-up. However, data in stroke patients on understanding of the informed consent (IC) procedure are sparse.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study among ischemic stroke patients taking part in the IC procedure of an ongoing cluster-randomized secondary prevention trial.

Immediate Neutrophil-Variable-T Cell Receptor Host Response in Bacterial Meningitis.

Bacterial meningitis is a life-threatening disease that evokes an intense neutrophil-dominated host response to microbes invading the subarachnoid space. Recent evidence indicates the existence of combinatorial V(D)J immune receptors in neutrophils that are based on the T cell receptor (TCR). Here, we investigated expression of the novel neutrophil TCRαβ-based V(D)J receptors in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from human patients with acute-phase bacterial meningitis using immunocytochemical, genetic immunoprofiling, cell biological, and mass spectrometric techniques.

Off-label use of IV t-PA in patients with intracranial neoplasm and cavernoma.

Background: The safety of systemic thrombolysis in patients with intracranial tumor and cavernoma are unknown. So far evidence is limited to a number of case reports and few case series or unspecified data based on population-based analysis. Our aim was to comprehend the risk of systemic thrombolysis in these patients.

DWI Lesion Patterns in Cancer-Related Stroke--Specifying the Phenotype.

Background: Due to the lack of specific diagnostic markers, the diagnosis of cancer-related stroke strongly depends on its phenotype. Distinct DWI lesion patterns with involvement of multiple vascular territories have been reported repeatedly in cancer-related stroke but have not been addressed in detail in a selected cohort of prospectively recruited cancer patients with emphasis on hypercoagulable conditions.

Patients And Methods: Ischemic stroke patients with known malignant cancer activity, laboratory evidence of strong plasmatic hypercoagulation (D-dimer levels > 3 µg/ml) and without competing stroke etiologies according to the recently introduced ASCOD (A - atherosclerosis, S - small vessel disease, C - cardiac pathology, O - other cause, and D - dissection) classification of evidence-rated etiology of stroke subtypes were included in the analysis.

Stroke and cancer: the importance of cancer-associated hypercoagulation as a possible stroke etiology.

Background And Purpose: The importance of cancer-associated hypercoagulability as a possible stroke etiology in patients with cancer has received relatively little attention to date. A recent study has suggested that cancer-associated hypercoagulation may be of special importance in the absence of conventional stroke mechanisms.

Methods: We identified patients with ischemic stroke sequentially admitted to our stroke center with the additional diagnosis of active and malignant cancer from 2002 to 2011.

Morphometry of structural disconnectivity indicators in subjects at risk and in age-matched patients with schizophrenia.

Structural disconnectivity has been hypothesized as being accountable for the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Morphometric variables suitable for the empirical study of disconnectivity were studied aiming at the research question whether empirical indicators for disconnectivity are already informative in subjects at risk (SAR) and in young matched patients diagnosed with schizophrenia (SZ). In MRI data of subjects of the two diagnostic groups SZ and SAR, the size of the corpus callosum (CC) as indicator for interhemispherical long distance connections and the gyrification index (GI) as indicator for cortico-cortical connections were analyzed compared to a healthy controls (HC).