03 Sep 18. Mild Stroke Study 3

The Mild Stroke Study 3 recruited its first participant on 22nd August.

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Sleep Apnoea team photo

The study aim is to improve understanding of what makes small vessel disease (SVD) worsen (or perhaps improve) and identify novel targets for SVD prevention and therapy.

The team

The team, led by Professor Joanna Wardlaw, aims to assess factors that affect brain small vessel dysfunction in SVD, how this damages the brain, whether the effects are permanent or can resolve, the associated factors, and whether some individuals are more vulnerable than others to the effects of small vessel dysfunction, for example due to having less resilient white matter structure.

The study

The team will recruit participants who have suffered a minor stroke due to SVD (lacunar ischaemic stroke), or who present with minor non-lacunar ischaemic stroke. They will use brain MRI to assess the extent to which SVD lesions can change over time, the integrity of the white and grey matter, small vessel blood flow and function and blood-brain barrier leakage. They will also image the retinal small vessels, measure blood pressure, systemic vascular compliance and obtain detailed information about medical and lifestyle factors, to understand how small vessel dysfunction and SVD lesion development are related to the clinical, cognitive and physical features of SVD. Dr Una Clancy is the Chief Scientist Office-funded fellow coordinating recruitment.

Support

The Mild Stroke Study 3 receives support from Fondation Leducq, UK Medical Research Council Dementia Research Initiative, and Row Fogo Charitable Trust.

The study forms part of the sporadic SVD study, a collaboration between Sunnybrook Dementia Research Institute at the University of Toronto and Professor Wardlaw’s team at the Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences.