Differences in Stroke Recurrence Risk Between Atrial Fibrillation Detected on ECG and 14-Day Cardiac Monitoring.

BACKGROUND: Ischemic stroke and transient ischemic attack (TIA) standard-of-care etiological investigations include an ECG and prolonged cardiac monitoring (PCM). Atrial fibrillation (AF) detected after stroke has been generally considered a single entity, regardless of how it is diagnosed. We hypothesized that ECG-detected AF is associated with a higher risk of stroke recurrence than AF detected on 14-day Holter (PCM-detected AF). METHODS: We conducted a retrospective, registry-based, cohort study of consecutive patients with ischemic stroke and TIA included in the London Ontario Stroke Registry between 2018 and 2020, with ECG-detected and PCM-detected AF lasting ≥30 seconds. We quantified PCM-detected AF burden. The primary outcome was recurrent ischemic stroke, ascertained by systematically reviewing all medical records until November 2022. We applied marginal cause-specific Cox proportional hazards models adjusted for qualifying event type (ischemic stroke versus TIA), CHA2DS2-VASc score, anticoagulation, left ventricular ejection fraction, left atrial size, and high-sensitivity troponin T to estimate adjusted hazard ratios for recurrent ischemic stroke. RESULTS: We included 366 patients with ischemic stroke and TIA with AF, 218 ECG-detected, and 148 PCM-detected. Median PCM duration was 12 (interquartile range, 8.8-14.0) days. Median PCM-detected AF duration was 5.2 (interquartile range, 0.3-33.0) hours, with a burden (total AF duration/total net monitoring duration) of 2.23% (interquartile range, 0.13%-12.25%). Anticoagulation rate at the end of follow-up or at the first event was 83.1%. After a median follow-up of 17 (interquartile range, 5-34) months, recurrent ischemic strokes occurred in 16 patients with ECG-detected AF (13 on anticoagulants) and 2 with PCM-detected AF (both on anticoagulants). Recurrent ischemic stroke rates for ECG-detected and PCM-detected AF groups were 4.05 and 0.72 per 100 patient-years (adjusted hazard ratio, 5.06 [95% CI, 1.13-22.7]; P=0.034). CONCLUSIONS: ECG-detected AF was associated with 5-fold higher adjusted recurrent ischemic stroke risk than PCM-detected AF in a cohort of ischemic stroke and TIA with >80% anticoagulation rate.

Vascular Brain Lesions, Cognitive Reserve, and Their Association with Cognitive Profile in Persons with Early-Stage Cognitive Decline.

Background: Cognitive reserve may protect against the effects of brain pathology, but few studies have looked at whether cognitive reserve modifies the adverse effects of vascular brain pathology. Objective: We determined if cognitive reserve attenuates the associations of vascular brain lesions with worse cognition in persons with subjective concerns or mild impairment. Methods: We analyzed 200 participants aged 50-90 years from the Comprehensive Assessment of Neurodegeneration and Dementia (COMPASS-ND) study. Cognition was measured using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment and a neuropsychological test battery. High vascular lesion burden was defined as two or more supratentorial infarcts or beginning confluent or confluent white matter hyperintensity. Cognitive reserve proxies included education, occupational attainment, marital status, social activities, physical activity, household income, and multilingualism. Results: Mean age was 72.8 years and 48% were female; 73.5% had mild cognitive impairment and 26.5% had subjective concerns. Professional/managerial occupations, annual household income≥$60,000 per year, not being married/common law, and high physical activity were independently associated with higher cognition. Higher vascular lesion burden was associated with lower executive function, but the association was not modified by cognitive reserve. Conclusion: Markers of cognitive reserve are associated with higher cognition. Vascular lesion burden is associated with lower executive function. However, cognitive reserve does not mitigate the effects of vascular lesion burden on executive function. Public health efforts should focus on preventing vascular brain injury as well as promoting lifestyle factors related to cognitive reserve, as cognitive reserve alone may not mitigate the effects of vascular brain injury.

Trial of remote ischaemic preconditioning in vascular cognitive impairment (TRIC-VCI): protocol.

INTRODUCTION: Cerebral small vessel disease (cSVD) accounts for 20%-25% of strokes and is the most common cause of vascular cognitive impairment (VCI). In an animal VCI model, inducing brief periods of limb ischaemia-reperfusion reduces subsequent ischaemic brain injury with remote and local protective effects, with hindlimb remote ischaemic conditioning (RIC) improving cerebral blood flow, decreasing white-matter injury and improving cognition. Small human trials suggest RIC is safe and may prevent recurrent strokes. It remains unclear what doses of chronic daily RIC are tolerable and safe, whether effects persist after treatment cessation, and what parameters are optimal for treatment response. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: This prospective, open-label, randomised controlled trial (RCT) with blinded end point assessment and run-in period, will recruit 24 participants, randomised to one of two RIC intensity groups: one arm treated once daily or one arm twice daily for 30 consecutive days. RIC will consistent of 4 cycles of blood pressure cuff inflation to 200 mm Hg for 5 min followed by 5 min deflation (total 35 min). Selection criteria include: age 60-85 years, evidence of cSVD on brain CT/MRI, Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) score 13-24 and preserved basic activities of living. Outcomes will be assessed at 30 days and 90 days (60 days after ceasing treatment). The primary outcome is adherence (completing ≥80% of sessions). Secondary safety/tolerability outcomes include the per cent of sessions completed and pain/discomfort scores from patient diaries. Efficacy outcomes include changes in cerebral blood flow (per arterial spin-label MRI), white-matter hyperintensity volume, diffusion tensor imaging, MoCA and Trail-Making tests. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Research Ethics Board approval has been obtained. The results will provide information on feasibility, dose, adherence, tolerability and outcome measures that will help design a phase IIb RCT of RIC, with the potential to prevent VCI. Results will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications, organisations and meetings. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT04109963.

COVID-19: Stroke Admissions, Emergency Department Visits, and Prevention Clinic Referrals.

We assessed the impact of the coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic on code stroke activations in the emergency department, stroke unit admissions, and referrals to the stroke prevention clinic at London's regional stroke center, serving a population of 1.8 million in Ontario, Canada. We found a 20% drop in the number of code strokes in 2020 compared to 2019, immediately after the first cases of COVID-19 were officially confirmed. There were no changes in the number of stroke admissions and there was a 22% decrease in the number of clinic referrals, only after the provincial lockdown. Our findings suggest that the decrease in code strokes was mainly driven by patient-related factors such as fear to be exposed to the SARS-CoV-2, while the reduction in clinic referrals was largely explained by hospital policies and the Government lockdown.

Long-Term Outcomes in the Management of Painful Diabetic Neuropathy.

BACKGROUND: Painful diabetic neuropathy (PDN) is a frequent complication of diabetes mellitus. Current treatment recommendations are based on short-term trials, generally of ≤3 months' duration. Limited data are available on the long-term outcomes of this chronic disease. The objective of this study was to determine the long-term clinical effectiveness of the management of chronic PDN at tertiary pain centres. METHODS: From a prospective observational cohort study of patients with chronic neuropathic non-cancer pain recruited from seven Canadian tertiary pain centres, 60 patients diagnosed with PDN were identified for analysis. Data were collected according to Initiative on Methods, Measurement, and Pain Assessment in Clinical Trials guidelines including the Brief Pain Inventory. RESULTS: At 12-month follow-up, 37.2% (95% confidence interval [CI], 23.0-53.3) of 43 patients with complete data achieved pain reduction of ≥30%, 51.2% (95% CI, 35.5-66.7) achieved functional improvement with a reduction of ≥1 on the Pain Interference Scale (0-10, Brief Pain Inventory) and 30.2% (95% CI, 17.2-46.1) had achieved both these measures. Symptom management included at least two medication classes in 55.3% and three medication classes in 25.5% (opioids, antidepressants, anticonvulsants). CONCLUSIONS: Almost one-third of patients being managed for PDN in a tertiary care setting achieve meaningful improvements in pain and function in the long term. Polypharmacy including analgesic antidepressants and anticonvulsants were the mainstays of effective symptom management.

A comparison between the MoCA and the MMSE visuoexecutive sub-tests in detecting abnormalities in TIA/stroke patients.

BACKGROUND: Executive dysfunction predicts stroke risk, dementia, and mortality. The Montreal cognitive assessment detects more visuoexecutive dysfunction than the mini-mental state examination but it is unclear which of the individual Montreal cognitive assessment visuoexecutive items contribute to the better performance of the Montreal cognitive assessment. We therefore determined the relative performance of the Montreal cognitive assessment visuoexecutive sub-tests versus the mini-mental state examination pentagon copying in patients with stroke and transient ischemic attack. METHODS: Mini-mental state examination and Montreal cognitive assessment were administered to a prospective, population-based cohort of stroke, and transient ischemic attack patients from the Oxford Vascular Study at six month or five-year follow-up between November 2007 and June 2009. We compared the proportion of participants with incorrect Montreal cognitive assessment visuoexecutive tasks and sub-tasks but correct mini-mental state examination pentagon copying versus the proportion with incorrect MMSE pentagon copying but correct visuoexecutive Montreal cognitive assessment sub-test and individual sub-test items. RESULTS: Among 412 patients assessed with the mini-mental state examination and Montreal cognitive assessment, the Montreal cognitive assessment detected more visuoexecutive dysfunction than the mini-mental state examination (OR 11.4, 95% CI 8.2-15.8, p < 0.001). The likelihood of incorrect mini-mental state examination pentagon copying increased as the numbers of correct MoCA visuoexecutive responses decreased: 2/106 (1.9%) and 9/10 (90.0%) incorrect mini-mental state examination pentagon copying for 5/5 and 0/5 correct Montreal cognitive assessment visuoexecutive tasks, respectively (p for trend 0.005). Each Montreal cognitive assessment visuoexecutive sub-task, including trails (39.6%), cube copying (49.5%), and clock drawing (59.0%), detected more patients with visuoexecutive dysfunction than the mini-mental state examination pentagon copying (20.6%, p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: All three of the Montreal cognitive assessment visuoexecutive sub-tests detected more abnormalities than the mini-mental state examination pentagon copying and thus contributed to the over 10-fold superiority of Montreal cognitive assessment over the mini-mental state examination for detection of visuoexecutive dysfunction.

Screening for cognitive impairment in a stroke prevention clinic using the MoCA.

BACKGROUND: Screening for cognitive impairment is recommended in patients with cerebrovascular disease. We sought to establish the incidence of cognitive impairment using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) in a cohort of consecutive patients attending our stroke prevention clinic (SPC), and to determine whether a subset of the MoCA could be derived for use in this busy clinical setting. METHODS: The MoCA was administered to 102 patients. Incidence of cognitive impairment was compared to presenting complaint and final diagnosis. extent of cerebral white matter changes (WMC) was rated using the Age Related White Matter Changes (ARWMC) scale in 80 patients who underwent neuroimaging. A subset of the three most predictive test elements of the MoCA was derived using regression analysis. RESULTS: 63.7% of patients scored <26/30 on the MoCA, in keeping with cognitive impairment. This was unrelated to the final diagnosis or extent of WMC, although a trend for lower MoCA scores was observed in older patients. A mini-MoCA subscore combining the clock drawing test, five-word delayed recall, and abstraction was highly correlated with the final MoCA score (R=0.901). A score of <7/10 using this 10-point mini-MoCA identified cognitive impairment as defined by the MoCA with a sensitivity of 98.5%, and a specificity of 77.6%. CONCLUSIONS: Two-thirds of SPC patients demonstrated evidence for cognitive impairment, irrespective of their final diagnosis or the presence of WMC. A mini-MoCA comprised of the clock drawing test, five-word delayed recall, and abstraction represents a potential alternative to the full MoCA in this population.