9th Welsh Stroke Conference: What Is The Future Of Stroke Medicine?

For the 9^th year running the Welsh stroke Conference has managed to attract the attention of the hundreds of stroke specialists and members of the multidisciplinary teams from Wales and all around the country. The conference which was held on 25^th June 2010 in the River Front of Newport has started with a presentation from Professor Steven Cramer about the subject of brain repair after stroke.

The speaker is an Associate Professor of Neurology at the University of California, Irvine. His research focuses on brain repair process after central nervous system injury in humans, with an emphasis on recovery of movement after stroke.

The subject of cerebral small vessel disease and its diagnosis and management was the main focus of Dr Mike O’Sullivan lecture. Mike is one of the Neurologist and MRC fellow in Cardiff. His main research interest is in mechanism of cognitive impairment in aged population and its relation to cerebral small vessel disease.

The third lecture in the first session of the stroke conference was about advances in stroke rehabilitation by Professor Robert Teasell from Ontario. The lecturer has edited 4 books and authored over 200 peer-reviewed articles in his field. Professor Teasell is the primary investigator of the acquired brain injury evidence-based review (ERABI) and the spinal cord injury research evidence (SCIRE)) projects.

The main lecture of the conference was given by Professor Jeffrey Saver from California about the subject of future of stroke medicine. He is currently chair of the stroke council of the American heart association. Professor Saver is the principal investigator of a specialized program of translational research in acute stroke.

The 9^th Welsh stroke conference has addressed the issue of living with stroke and discussed subjects like: oral health care and visual problems post stroke. Professor Kennedy Lees from Glasgow was speaking about thrombolysing for acute ischaemic stroke and the evidences available so far for the practice in hyperacute stroke care. Professor Keith Muir was lecturing about Neuroimaging for stroke patients and the recent advances in this field. He was a guest speaker few weeks ago in North of Gwent where he was speaking about the latest developments in the field of stem cell in stroke research and management.

The organisers of the conference have chosen few posters about subjects related to stroke service delivery, stroke research and stroke case presentations. The experience of the stroke teams in Wales in using the teleconferencing to facilitate educational meetings across Wales was presented in a poster by Dr. P. Jones and Dr.Tom Hughes from University Hospital of Wales.