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Two Hadassah Medical Organization doctors took center stage as the US began marking American Heart Month in February. The American Heart Association (AHA) honored neurologists Dr. Ronen Leker (who chairs the Israel Stroke Society) and Dr. Yoel Schwartzmann for their research into predicting unsuccessful catheterization in patients undergoing cerebral catheterization. Their study was published in the European Stroke Journal.
The AHA organizes the annual International Stroke Conference, which took place this year in New Orleans.
“The connection between the two is that they are both related to the vascular system,” explained Schwartzmann.
Doctors often use a procedure called endovascular thrombectomy (EVT) to remove a clot in a major brain artery in a stroke. Even when the blocked artery is successfully reopened, many patients still do not recover well. The researchers wanted to find out who is most likely to have a poor outcome, even after a technically successful procedure. They created a simple score that doctors can use to estimate this risk.
Dr. Leker and Dr. Schwartzmann worked with a large pool of 27 stroke centers in nine countries, assessing the results of 15,000 patients. Some 73 percent had their artery successfully reopened. Of those, almost half (47 percent) still had a poor functional outcome after three months, confirming technical success does not guarantee recovery.
Factors linked to a higher risk of poor outcomes include aging, diabetes, ischemic heart disease, seizures at the start of the stroke, blockages in the anterior cerebral artery and more brain damage visible on the first CT scan.
“This is important work because it informs physicians and patient families about the chances of an endovascular procedure not resulting in favorable outcomes despite the technical success of the procedure itself,” said Leker. “It may be used to better select patients who are more likely to regain independence as opposed to those who may not.”
“I'm very proud to be part of the organization called Hadassah,” said Schwartzmann. “Hadassah hospitals not only provide medical service at the highest level in the world but also actively encourage many academic initiatives in both the clinical and basic science arenas. I’m honored to work at Hadassah hospitals with my senior departmental colleagues.”
