Scientists are investigating the causes of delayed neurological deterioration after subarachnoid hemorrhage through the use of animal models, as well as studies testing learning and memory and changes in brain electrophysiology, gene expression and function. Clinical trials and knowledge translation in ischemic stroke and subarachnoid hemorrhage are also major research areas where researchers at St. Michael’s are world-wide coordinators. St. Michael’s neuroscientists are investigating the influence of the type of hospitalization, sociodemographic and health service factors on patient outcomes, among many other projects.
Stroke Outcomes Research Centre
What is a Subarachnoid Hemorrhage?
Research on Subarachnoid Hemorrhage
The primary focus the Stroke Outcomes Research Centre, led by Dr.Gustavo Saposnik, includes 3 levels of intervention:
Dr. Saposnik is the principal investigator of several stroke outcome research projects and grants, and published over 130 peer-reviewed articles. Dr. Saposnik has established a successful research program on Stroke Outcomes Research www.sorcan.ca and is currently working with the American Heart Association in developing guidelines for stroke care. Featured projects include:
iHOME
The goal of iHOME is to examine the feasibility of an interactive software application, using a tablet PC (the iPad), to enhance attention and fine motor function of the upper extremity and remediate visual neglect in stroke patients, relative to the standard of care.
iSCORE
iSCORE is a predictive model of stroke mortality may be useful for clinicians to improve communication with and care of hospitalized patients. Our aim was to identify predictors of mortality and to develop and validate a risk score model using information available at hospital presentation.
JURaSSiC
The Clinician Judgment vs. Risk Score to predict Stroke outComes (JURaSSiC) study randomized 111 Clinicians with expertise in acute stroke care to predict clinical outcomes of 5 assigned case-based ischemic stroke scenarios. Participants were enrolled in the study if they were practicing clinicians who provided stroke care in Ontario and were directly involved in medical decision making during the initial presentation or hospitalization. To reflect actual clinical practice, ischemic stroke cases for scenario development were selected to be representative of the 10 most common clinical presentations (n=1,415). This was possible by creating a patient profile matrix matched by age, sex, stroke severity, stroke subtype, the presence of vascular risk factors, glucose on admission, pre-admission status and risk stratum.
The SAHIT (Subarachnoid Hemorrhage International Trialists) Repository is a combined database of many of the most recent clinical trials that have been conducted in subarachnoid hemorrhage. The aim of this database is to provide a pooled resource from which more representative analyses could be performed that researchers around the world use to plan future clinical trials. This pooled resource will guide clinical trials in subarachnoid hemorrhage as well as aid in the development of prognostic models of subarachnoid hemorrhage. This repository currently contains data on 14,000+ SAH patients from sites all over North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.
