Thank you for everything REVIEWERS!

The following people have contributed to the journal in a very important way, as reviewers. It is a reviewer’s time, energy and expert advice that supports the editorial teams decision-making process. A reviewer’s contribution cannot be underestimated; without their support there would be no journal. Due to their support we have an excellent quality publication, that is the flagship of the World Stroke Organization and as we continue to build a global stroke community we are increasingly proud of this journal, The International Journal of Stroke.

'Thank you' is just a word. We are grateful more than words can say.

Abbott, Anne; Acampa, Maurizio; Adams, Harold; Adams, Robert; Agmon, Yoram; Ahmed, Niaz; Al-Khathaami, Ali; Albers, GW; Alberti, Andrea; Alberts, MJ; Albright, Karen; Alexander, Lisa; Alexander, Mathew; Alexandrov, Andrei; Alexandrov, Anne; Algra, Ale; Ali, Myzoon; Alvarez-Sabin, Jose; Amarenco, Pierre; Anderson, Craig S; Ang, Kai Keng; Antman, E; Antonic, Ana; Aoki, K; Arboix, Adria; Armitage, Paul; Arnold, Marcel; Ashburn, Ann; Askim, Torunn; Asplund, Kjell; Bae, Hee; Baird, Alison; Bamford, John; Bang, Oh Young; Barber, Alan; Barber, Phillip; Barinagarrementeria, Fernando; Barlinn, Kristian; Barreto, Andrew; Barritt, Andrew; Bateman, Brian; Bath, Philip; Becks, SA; Bedada, Getahun; Behrouz, Réza; Benavente, Oscar; Bennett, Jeffery; Bereczki, Dániel; Bernhardt, Julie; Best, Catherine; Bhatt, Archit; Bhatt, Deepak; Biller, J; Black-Schaffer, Randie; Bladin, Chris; Bogousslavsky, Julien; Bonati, Leo; Bonita, Ruth; Bornstein, Natan; Borschmann, Karen; Bousser, Marie-Germaine; Boysen, Gudrun; Brainin, Michael; Bravata, D; Brekenfeld, Casper; Breteler, Monique; Breuer, Lorenz; Broderick, Joseph; Brodtmann, Amy; Brott, Thomas; Brown, Alex; Brown, Martin; Bruins Slot, Karsten; Bruno, A; Bruno, Askiel; Bryer, Alan; Buchan, Alastair; Buck, Brian; Butcher, Kenneth; Cadilhac, Dominique; Calamante, Fernando; Campbell, Bruce; Candelise, Livia; Canhão, Patricia; Cantú, Carlos; Caplan, Louis; Carey, Leeanne; Carolei, Antonio; Carpenter, Myra; Castellanos, Mar Castillo, Jose; Caura, J; Cha, JaeKwan; Chabriat, Huges; Chambers, Brian; Chamorro, Ángel; Chancellor, Andrew; Chatterjee, Kausik; Chen, Christopher; Cheung, Raymond; Chimowitz, MI; Chopp, Michael; Christensen, Soren; Christensen, Hanne; Chua, Karen; Chun, Min; Clark, Wayne; Clarkson, Andrew; Cohen Leonardo; Cohen Stanley; Connolly, Stuart; Cordonnier, Charlotte; Correia, Manuel; Coull, Andrew; Coutts, Shelagh; Covic, A; Cramer, Steve; Csiba, Laszlo; Culebras, Antonio; Cumming, Toby; Czlonkowska, Anna; Dandona, P; Dávalos, Antoni; Davis, Stephen; Dawson, Jesse; De Georgia, Michael; De Keyser, JH; de Lau, Lonneke; De Silva, Deidre; Debette, Stephanie; del Zoppo, GJ; Demchuk, Andrew; Denier, Christian; Dennis, Martin; DeReuck, J; Derex, Laurent; Dewey, Helen; Dhillon, Bal; Di Carlo, A; Dichgans, Martin; Diener, Hans- Christoph; Dippel, Diederik; Diringer, MN; Dirnagl, Ulrich; Dobkin, Bruce; Donnellan, Claire; Dorhout Mees, Sanne; Doubal, Fergus; Dowlatshahi, Dar; Drummond, Avril; Duncan, Pamela; Eames, Sally; Eikelboom, John; Elkind, Mitchell; Ellis, Charles; Eng, Janice; English, Coralie; Estol, Conrad; Fang, Yuan; Fayad, Pierre; Feigin, Valery; Feldmann, Edward; Ferrero, Emanuele; Ferro, Jose; Fiehler, Jens; Fiorelli, Marco; Firscher, Urs; Foley, Norine; Ford, Gary; Fox, Keith; Fuentes, Blanca; Furie, Karen; Furlan, Anthony; Futrell, Nancy; Gage, BF; Galea, Mary; Georgiou, Ioannis; Giles, Matthew; Gilligan, Amanda; Ginsberg, M; Goldstein, Joshua; Goldstein, Larry; Gonzalez, RG; Gorelick, Phil; Gray, Laura; Greenberg, Steven; Grotta, James; Hacke, Werner; Hackett, Maree; Hallenbeck, John; Hamon, M; Hand, Peter; Hankey, Graeme; Hanley, Daniel; Hart, Robert; Hasegawa, Yasuhiro; Heiss, Wolf-Dieter; Hennerici, Michael; Henskens, Leon; Heo, Ji; Hess, David C; Heuschmann, PU; Higashida, Randall; Higashida, Randy; Hill, Kelvin; Hill, Michael; Hillier, Susan; Hodgson, Corinne; Holland, Christy; Hommel, Marc; Hong, Keun-Sik; Hong, Yun-Chul; Howard, George; Howard, Virginia; Howells, David; Hughes, Richard; Hui, R; Huttner, Hagen; Indredavik, Bent; Ingall, Tim; Inzitari, Domenico; Ishibashi, Toshihiro; Itabashi, Ryo; Jackson, Caroline; Jamrozik, Konrad; Jannes, Jim; Janssen, T; Jensen, Matthew; Jeon, Sang; Jickling, Glenn; Johnston, S. Claiborne; Jones, Elizabeth; Jones, Stephanie; Judd, Suzanne; Jung, Keun; Kalra, Lalit; Kang, Dong-Wha; Kappelle, J; Kapral, Moira; Karayanidis, Frini; Kasner, Scott; Kaste, Markku; Kautz, SA; Kawamura, Takahiko; Kaya, Dilaver; Kennedy, Jonathan; Kent, DM; Kern, Rolf; Kettunen, Jaana; Khan, Nadia; Khatri, Ismail; Kidwell, Chelsea; Kilkenny, Monique; Kim, Jong; Kim, Joon-Tae; Kim, Yun-Hee; Kissela, Brett; Knapp, Martin; Kobayashi, Adam; Koblar, Simon; Koch, Christian; Koh, Jae; Kollmar, Rainer; Korner-Bitensky, Nicol; Kosinski, C; Koudstaal, Peter; Krieger, Derk; Kucinski, Thomas; Kumar, Sudhir; Kunz, Alexander; Kwakkel, Gert; Kwon, Sun; Labreuche, Julien; Labreuche, Yannick; Langhorne, Peter; Larrue, V; Lassila, Riitta; Lawes, Carlene; Lee, Joo; Lee, Andrew; Lee, Byung; Lee, Seung-Hoon; Lees, Kennedy; Lenicek Krleza, Jasna; Levi, Christopher; Levin, Mindy; Levine, Steven; Lewis, Steff; Leys, Didier; Liebeskind, David; Lindeman, Eline; Linden, Thomas; Lindley, Richard; Lindsberg, PJ; Liu, Ming; Liu, Xinfeng; Lo, Eng; Lodder, J; Logan, Pip; Longstreth Jnr, WT; Lopez, George; Lovelock, Caroline; Lovett, KM; Loy, Candace; Lyden, Patrick; Maas, Matthew; Macleod, Malcolm; Maheswaran, R; Marder, Victor; Marini, C; Markus, Hugh; Marler, John; Mas, Jean Louis; Massaro, Ayrton; Matsumoto, Masatoshi; Matten, FJ; Mattle, Heinrich; Mayer, Stephan; Mazighi, Mikael; McCluskey, Annie; McDermott, Robyn; Mead, Gillian; Meairs, S; Mendelow, David; Mendis, Shanthi; Meretoja, Atte; Meschia, James; Michel, Patrik; Middleton, Sandy; Minematsu, Kazuo; Mishra, Nishant; Miteff, Ferdi; Moeller, Michael; Mohr, JP; Mok, Vincent; Molina, Carlos; Molyneux, Andy; Montaner, Joan; Moody, MA; Mori, Etsuro; Morrison, David; Mosley, Ian; Moulin, Thierry; Nagakane, Yoshinari; Nagatsuka, Kazuyuki; Nakagawara, Jyoji; Neumann-Haefelin, Christoph; Nighoghossian, Norbert; Nilsson, Michael; Nolte, Christian; Norris, John; Norrving, Bo; Ntaios, George; O'Brien, John; O'Brien, JT; O'Collins, Victoria; Ringleb, Peter; Rinkel, Gabriel; Roberts, Heide; Roh, Jae-Kyu; Roine, Risto; Roman, GC; Roos, Yvo; Rosand, Jonathan; Rosser, Andrew; Roth, Elliot; Rother, Joachim; Rothwell, Nancy; Rothwell, Peter; Rubattu, Speranza; Rubiera, Marta; Rudd, Anthony; Rundek, Tatjana; Russell, David; Sampaio Silva, Gisele; Sandercock, Peter; Saposnik, Gustavo; Sarikaya, Hakan; Sarzynska-Dlugosz, Iwona; Sato, Shoichiro; Saver, Jeffrey; Savitz, Sean; Schaer, BA; Schellinger, Peter; Schiller, Petra; Schlachetzki, Felix; Schonewille, WJ; Schwab, Stephan; Schwamm, Lee; Schwammenthal, Yvonne; Schwartz, Arthur; Segura, Tomás; Seitz, Rudiger; Seki, R; Selvarajah, Johann; Sena, Emily; Sharma, Vijay; Sharp, Frank; Sherrington, Charles; Shinohara, Yukito; Shuaib, Ashfaq; Siebler, Mario; Silver, Frank; Simpson, Marion; Singer, Oliver; Singhal, AB; Sironi, Luigi; Sivenius, Juhani; Skvortsova, Veronika; Smith, Craig; Smith, Eric; Sobey, Chris; Soinne, Lauri; Spence, David; Spratt, Neil; Srikanth, Velandai; Stam, Jan; Stamova, Boryana; Stapf, Christian; Steiner, Thorsten; Stephen, Lord; Stolz, Erwin; Stott, DJ; Strickland, Sidney; Sturm, Jonathan; Suarez, Jose; Suh, Il, Sullivan, Karen; Sunnerhagen, Katharina; Suri, Fareed; Szabo, Kristina; Tan, Teng Yeow; Tanaka, Kortaro; Tang, Wai Kwong; Tanislav, Christian; Tanne, David; Teasell, Robert; Teixeira-Salmela, Luci; Terént, Andreas; Thaler, David; Thijs, Vincent; Thomalla, Goetz; Thrift, Amanda; Tian, Yingfang; Toivonen, Lauri; Tomsick, T; Toni, Danilo; Touze, Emmanuel; Toyoda, Kazunori; Trouillas, Paul; Truelsen, Thomas; Tsivgoulis, Georgios; Tuomilehto, Jaakko; Turin, Tanvir; Tyrrell, Phillipia; Uchiyama, Shinichiro; van de Beek, Diederik; Van der Worp, HB; Van Dijk, E;Venketasubramanian, Narayanaswamy; Vernooij, Meike; Vidale, Simone; Villeneuve, Paul; Visser-Meily, Anne; Vlak, Monique; von Kummer, Rudiger; Vroomen, PC; Wade, Derek; Wagenaar, Robert; Wagner, Markus; Wahlgren, Nils Gunnar; Wang, Chunxue; Warach, Steven; Wardlaw, Joanna; Wechsler, Lawrence; Weimar, Christian; Weir, CJ; Werner, Philipp; Westendrop, Willeke; Whisnant, Jack; White, CJ; Whitely, William; Williams, Linda; Wintermark, Max; Wityk, Robert; Wolf, SL; Wong, Lawrence; Wu, Yazhou; Xiang-Hua, Fang; Yamamoto, Y; Yan, Bernard; Yasaka, Masahiro; Yoon, Byung-Woo; Yoshida, Hiro; Young, John; Zeller, M; Zeng, Jinsheng; Zhang, Zheng; Zhang, John; Zhang, Jun; Zhang, Yumei;  Zivin, Justin.

Happy festivities

For those celebrating this festive season! 

Thank you all for your contribution to the International Journal of Stroke.

IJS festive season upon us...

For some of us a festive season is coming, for some of us snow, and for some of us sun. 
In Australia where the editorial office is based the sun shines and summer is here with the heat on full blast. We get ready for the coming festivities and with food hybridised to suit a warmer climate. 


And it is at this time, as the year draws to a close we look back at the year that has passed and how we spent it. IJS has been a fast growing journal and papers fly in and out of our doors at an increasingly high rate, we are already close to putting final touches on the second edition for next year so it's hard to keep our heads in December. However, it is keenly felt that the continuing success of the journal is due to the incredible dedication, patience and support of the international stroke community. Without this support and collaboration the journal would only be a shadow of what it is now. 


But it must be said that there is a team of people who have eased the cogs of the machine and are the mechanics of the ideal. So we sincerely thank our dear colleagues some who have this year moved on and some newly arrived, for all their hard-work and dedication, ideas and support from the inside and behind the scenes; Gavin Sharrock, a shining star in medical publishing; Eloise Keys, a fabulous marketing specialist who will be well missed; Ruth Oh and Chrizette Larin who have both been excellent and professional Production Editors this year;  Ian the bookbinder, Lian Low and Emma Kerin who were both excellent editorial assistants.

We welcome Paul Cumine who takes over from Gavin at Wiley and we are certain that he will have the same gung-ho, exciting and exuberant approach to publishing as Gavin, which are the qualities that have made this journal such a quick success. 


All-in-all it's been a brilliant year and I suspect it will just keep getting better and better!  

IJS Wordlie

ICNE

International Congress on Neurology and Epidemiology


A call for early registrations for the coming ICNE to be held in Nice, France, 8-10 November 2012. The good news is that for people who register early they will save on registration fee 150-200 Euros. We realize that for many participants registration depends on the acceptance of their abstracts. Therefore for those who submit their abstracts before April 2012 we are going to organise an early peer-review process to notify them about acceptance of their abstracts by May 2012.

The many views...

10181 views of our blog in it's short life... so far. Love to hear your comments regarding our blog 
posts. 
Should we post with greater regularity write self generated article or focus primarily on the WSO 
IJS and associated activities? 


It's your journal.

  

Coming soon to IJS Early view in January 2012.

Coming soon to IJS Early view in January 2012.  

Depressive symptoms as a predictor of quality of life in cerebral small vessel disease, acting independently of disability; a study in both sporadic SVD and CADASIL

Rebecca L Brookes, Thomas A Willis,  Bhavini Patel, Robin G Morris, Hugh S Markus 

Figure 1. Correlation between depression (GDS30) and quality of life (SSQoL) scores in the SVD group

Join the WSO and enjoy a fast track to IJS content

International Journal of Stroke final issue for the year is out! If you haven't received it yet and you are a member of the World Stroke Organization then please contact me on carmenl@unimelb.edu.au otherwise consider becoming a member of the WSO and enjoy a fast track to IJS content.

IJS speaks to Professor Sandy Middleton about the Quality in Acute Stroke Care

http://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/interview-professor-sandy/id483410287

Professor Sandy Middleton is the Director of the Nursing Research Institute, St Vincent’s & Mater Health Sydney and School of Nursing (NSW & ACT) Australian Catholic University, and Director, National Centre for Clinical Outcomes Research (NaCCOR), Australian Catholic University; Australian Catholic University Priority Research Centre and Chief investigator of the Quality in Acute Stroke Care (QASC) study.

Open science now - Michael Neilsen, physicist

As the world changes science and researchers are able to collaborate in ways never seen before, or so we keep hearing. Revolutionary modern day figures like Steve Jobs have told us again and again technology will change the way we collaborate; but how?
In this TED talk physicist turned writer, Michael Nielsen pushes the idea of believes online communication and collaboration tools are revolutionizing the way we make scientific discoveries.

http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_nielsen_open_science_now.html

Teaser 7:1 Effects of lower limb reciprocal pedalling exercise on motor function after stroke: a systematic review of randomised and non-randomised studies

After stroke, it is possible to drive beneficial functional reorganisation of the brain with behavioural training. For example, repetition of motor activity can produce changes in brain representation maps and motor skill acquisition, or motor learning, may drive these changes. These and other findings suggest that rehabilitation programmes should incorporate these underlying principles and hence involve: increasing levels of motor skill; goal-directed activity, and tasks that are meaningful for participants in rehabilitation programmes. However, it remains unclear which specific therapeutic modalities might best be used to provide the repetitive, skilled activity necessary to drive brain changes that might lead to improvements in functional activities such as gait.

World Stroke Day

Download these articles on World Stroke Day (WSD), 2011.
What will you be doing this WSD?

World Stroke Day special edition: where are we six-years on? (page 375)
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1747-4949.2011.00663.x/full

IJS announces journal series on stroke, cognition and vascular dementia (page 375)
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1747-4949.2011.00662.x/full

World Stroke Day (page 376)
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1747-4949.2011.00655.x/full

World Stroke Day Editorial (page 377)
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1747-4949.2011.00656.x/full

The International Journal of Stroke welcomes Professor Patrick Lyden as Associate Editor (page 378)
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1747-4949.2011.00664.x/full

Stoke and stem cell research in Adelaide.

Esteemed strokeologist working with stem cell technology, Simon Koblar is featured in this attached, very interesting news article on the stroke and stem cell research happening in Adelaide. 
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-09-09/stem-cells-hold-hope-for-stroke-cure/2879332

SAMMPRIS study

The Stenting versus Aggressive Medical Management for Preventing Recurrent Stroke in Intracranial Stenosis (SAMMPRIS) study, is the first stroke prevention trial to compare intracranial stenting with medical therapy and incorporate intensive medical management to the study design. Patients in the study were ages 30 to 80 years old and had experienced a recent transient ischemic attack or another type of non-disabling stroke. All patients participated in a lifestyle modification program focused on quitting smoking, increasing exercise, and controlling diabetes and cholesterol.

The results showed that patients at high risk for a second stroke had a lower risk of stroke and death when treated with aggressive medical therapy than patients who received a brain stent in addition to aggressive medical therapy.  The trial seems to indicate that stents are detrimental to patients at high risk of stroke. It was hypothesized by the trial investigators that those with stents would decrease their risk of death.

Your thoughts?

Circuit class or seven-day therapy for increasing intensity of rehabilitation after stroke. Protocol of the CIRCIT trial.

Circuit class or seven-day therapy for increasing intensity of rehabilitation after stroke. Protocol of the CIRCIT trial.

Susan Hillier, Coralie English, Professor Maria Crotty, Leonie Segal, Julie Bernhardt, and Adrian Esterman.

Acknowledgements and funding

This trial is funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia, grant number 631904. This trial is registered with the Australian and New Zealand Trial Registry (ACTRN12610000096055).

Conflicts of interest: None to declare

Key words:

Stroke, rehabilitation, therapy, clinical trial

Summary

Rationale There is strong evidence for a dose-response relationship between physical therapy early after stroke and recovery of function. The optimal method of maximizing physical therapy within finite health care resources is unknown.

Aims To determine the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of two alternative models of physical therapy service delivery (seven-day per week therapy services or group circuit class therapy over five days a week) to usual care for people receiving inpatient rehabilitation after stroke.

Design Multicenter, three-armed randomized controlled trial with blinded assessment of outcomes.

Study A total of 282 people admitted to inpatient rehabilitation facilities after stroke with an admission Functional Independence Measure score within the moderate range (total 40-80 points or motor 38-62 points) will be randomized to receive one of three interventions:

·      usual care therapy over five days a week

·      standard care therapy over seven-days a week, or

·      group circuit class therapy over five days a week.

Participants will receive the allocated intervention for the length of their hospital stay. Analysis will be by intention-to-treat.

Outcomes The primary outcome measure is walking ability (six-minute walk test) at four-weeks post-intervention with three and six-month follow-up. Economic analysis will include a costing analysis based on length of hospital stay and staffing/resource costs and a cost-utility analysis (incremental quality of life per incremental cost, relative to usual care). Secondary outcomes include walking speed and independence, ability to perform activities of daily living, arm function, quality of life and participant satisfaction.

Brain Centres around the world

Lou Ruvo Brain Institute in Las Vegas

Melbourne Brain Centre in Melbourne, Australia

The Melbourne Brain Centre recently opened its doors as the home of the Austin campus Florey Neuroscience Institutes. Which had me wondering how important a building is to research. Looking farther afield there seems to be much interest from the governments of  developed countries in dedicating institutes to research of the brain and brain diseases. These buildings come with custom fittings from labs to research spaces and create spaces for collaboration between stroke, dementia, epilepsy, Parkinson's, Huntington's, motor neuron disease etc.

And what could be more important than discipline collaboration? In stroke alone there is so much collaboration between disciplines, and diseases. In the coming editions of the journal we are running a Stroke and Vascular Dementia series, edited by Dr Amy Brodtmann, who is currently specializing in this very important and interesting field.  IJS, following the global trend will bring you more and more collaboration in the future.

Ontario Brain Centre, Canada

McKnight Brain Centre Florida, US

Online character simulation - avoiding research misconduct

http://ori.hhs.gov/TheLab/

In "The Lab: Avoiding Research Misconduct," you become the lead characters in an interactive movie and make decisions about integrity in research that can have long-term consequences. The simulation addresses Responsible Conduct of Research topics such as avoiding research misconduct, mentorship responsibilities, handling of data, responsible authorship, and questionable research practices.

It's a great online interactive idea - we would be interested to hear your thoughts?
 

Long-term risk of recurrent stroke in young cryptogenic stroke patients with and without patent foramen ovale

Abstract

Background: Among patients with a patent foramen ovale and cryptogenic ischemic stroke, the long-term prognosis is unclear.

Aims: This study aims to estimate the recurrence rate in young cryptogenic stroke patients with and without patent foramen ovale.

Methods: One hundred eighty-six cryptogenic stroke patients (aged 18 to 45 years) were prospectively followed up for up to five years. They were divided into two groups according to the echocardiographic presence of patent foramen ovale. All patients received aspirin (100 mgs per day) for secondary prevention.

Results: Mean age was 32.3 (SD 7.9) years. During the mean follow up of 66 months five patients with patent foramen ovale had a recurrent strokes compared with 11 patients without patent foramen ovale. The average annual rate of recurrent cerebral ischemia was 1.1% and 1.6% for patients with and without patent foramen ovale respectively. The recurrence rate did not increase with the presence of patent foramen ovale, atrial septal aneurysm or other variables. More than 60% of the reported cases achieved a good functional outcome.
 
Conclusions: Young patients with cryptogenic ischemic stroke with and without patent foramen ovale have a low recurrence rate in a long-term follow-up and most present a favorable outcome. Patent foramen ovale with or without atrial septal aneurysm did not increase the risk of recurrence.

Discoveries need dollars

Last week the Australian government announced they will be slicing 400 million dollars off NHMRC funding in the coming budget. Of course, it goes without saying that a loss of 400 million dollars to the Australian medical research community means lost jobs, defunded projects and ultimately the loss of lives and quality of life for Australians. In terms of CVD in the Australian community, in our cities we are well funded and stroke fatality is in decline; however, the vast land mass that is this enormous island has extreme health disparity. Remote populations in cities as large as Broome on Australia's west coast have access to one part-time GP; options like telemedicine are imperative in these communities but the funding behind these concepts must be continued. It is common knowledge among stroke practitioners that neuro-protectants are as yet ineffectual in humans, but animal model testing has shown possibilities of protection. Imagine a world where a potential stroke could be avoided all together; this is only possible with continued trial funding. Sex, depression, dementia and rehabilitation post stroke are burgeoning ares of study, these clinical and observational studies have enough difficulty in clinically dominant environments receiving funding for best practice trials. In Melbourne, the new amalgamated Florey Neuroscience Institute has two fabulous purpose built buildings,  state of the art labs and collaborations with some of the best practitioners in the field of stroke. What was the point of the government funding these amazing spaces if there is a thinning stream of research outcomes, does it make it worth the communities money, because ultimately in every respect that's who pays for this enormous budget cut.

What's coming up in April on IJS Early view

Predictors of mobility after stroke: a systematic review

Craig, Louise  Wu, Olivia; Bernhardt, Julie; Langhorne, Peter Abstract Regaining post stroke mobility is considered a primary goal of the stroke patient in early rehabilitation. The ability to predict the recovery of post stroke mobility is of great clinical importance, providing information to healthcare professionals, patients and their families. We conducted a systematic review aimed at identifying the baseline factors, assessed within one week of stroke onset that are predictive of, or associated with, the recovery of mobility within 30 days post stroke. A comprehensive search strategy was applied to all major electronic databases to identify potentially relevant studies. Included in the review were two studies that evaluated the predictive value of baseline factors by developing a prognostic model, and three studies that assessed baseline factors that were associated with the outcome by univariate analysis. Walking was the most commonly assessed mobility outcome; age, the severity of paresis, reduced leg power, presence of hemianopia, size of brain lesion and type of stroke were shown to be predictive or associated with walking within 30 days post stroke.  This review has identified potential predictors of the recovery of mobility post stroke. There is a need to explore and validate these predictors in other patient cohorts and consider additional factors believed to be associated with mobility. The recovery of mobility other than walking also needs investigation. In order to move prognostic research in stroke forward a collaborative approach in the collecting and sharing of data is recommended