Publications by authors named "N J Spratt"

Article Synopsis
  • Hyperacute cardiac CT is more effective than transthoracic echocardiography in detecting intracardiac thrombus, but its routine use is limited due to costs and risks.
  • A study of 1,136 ischemic stroke or TIA patients found that longer arterial input function (AIF) dispersal times correlate with the presence of thrombus and worse outcomes, with a specific cutoff of 33 seconds indicating higher risk.
  • The findings support using AIF dispersal measurements to help identify patients who may benefit from cardiac imaging, potentially optimizing resource use in stroke management.
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Background: Variation in stroke treatment metrics highlight a need for approaches to improve clinical processes. Training interventions can improve outcomes, but Australian physician trainees do not currently receive formal process-directed stroke training. Virtual reality (VR) stroke workflow training has proven acceptable, usable, useful and feasible in trial contexts, but how to integrate VR training into physician training remains unclear.

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Objectives: There is increasing evidence that poor leptomeningeal collateral blood flow in hypertensive animals is due to increased vascular myogenic tone, indicating that therapies to enhance collateral blood flow during ischemic stroke may be particularly effective. To develop such therapies, we need a greater understanding of the factors that regulate collateral blood flow in the setting of hypertension. Therefore, we aimed to quantify blood flow velocity, diameter and absolute blood flow in individual collateral vessels in an ischemic stroke model in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs) and determine which factors had the greatest influence on blood flow.

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Inflammation is the major contributor to the pathophysiology of ischemic stroke (IS). Long non-coding ribonucleic acids (lncRNAs) metastasis-associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1 (MALAT1) and tumor necrosis factor and heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein L-related immunoregulatory (THRIL) have been demonstrated to be up-regulated in inflammation and atherosclerosis. Therefore, we aimed to study the expression profile of these lncRNAs after IS.

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Purpose: We aimed to validate hyperintense vessel sign (HVS) on FLAIR imaging or posterior cerebral artery (PCA) laterality on MR angiography beyond 4.5 hours after stroke onset.

Materials And Methods: Data from acute ischemic stroke patients with internal carotid or middle cerebral artery occlusion who underwent CT perfusion imaging at baseline, follow-up MR perfusion imaging and angiography within 30 hours after stroke, without effective recanalization on follow-up imaging, were analysed retrospectively.

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