Publications by authors named "R J Simister"

There are various models for acute neurology services in the UK, with considerable variation in practice. Patients are often admitted unnecessarily for neurology review, leading to delay in diagnosis and treatment. Alternative models, such as the Neurology Same Day Emergency Care service (Neuro-SDEC) at University College London Hospital provide a pathway that can prevent admissions and streamline patient care.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Adverse non-motor outcomes have a major impact on patients and caregivers after stroke, but knowledge of their prevalence, predictors and patterns across multiple health domains remains limited; we therefore aimed to obtain these data in a large observational prospective cohort study.

Methods: We included data from the Stroke Investigation Group in North and Central London (SIGNAL) registry based at the University College London Hospitals (UCLH) Comprehensive Stroke Service which serves a multi-ethnic population of ∼1.6 million people.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • A significant portion of spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhages (ICH) arise from macrovascular causes, necessitating a swift diagnosis, often through invasive procedures like digital subtraction angiography (DSA), which aren't suitable for all patients.
  • This study aimed to develop a new risk stratification score, the MACRO score, incorporating MRI findings to improve the identification of macrovascular causes of ICH.
  • The MACRO score successfully incorporates various patient factors and MRI markers, demonstrating better predictive capabilities than current CT-based scores, validating its effectiveness in a diverse patient population.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Cerebral small vessel disease (SVD) can lead to various cerebrovascular issues, but research on sex differences in SVD is limited.
  • This study analyzed data from over 20,000 patients with acute ischemic stroke to examine whether the presence and severity of cerebral microbleeds (CMB) and other SVD markers differ between males and females.
  • Results showed that males had more frequent CMB while females had fewer lacunes but higher severe white matter hyperintensities, indicating distinct SVD characteristics based on sex.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Oxygen (O) concentrations in coastal seawater have been declining for decades and models predict continued deoxygenation into the future. As O declines, metabolic energy use is progressively channelled from higher trophic levels into microbial community respiration, which in turn influences coastal ecology and biogeochemistry. Despite its critical role in deoxygenation and ecosystem functioning, the kinetics of microbial respiration at low O concentrations in coastal seawater remain uncertain and are mostly modeled based on parameters derived from laboratory cultures and a limited number of environmental observations.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF