In 6 weeks or so I will be traveling to Finland to speak at the Kuopio stroke symposium. They asked me to talk about my favorite subject, hypercoagulability and ischemic stroke. although I still working on the last details of the slides, I can already provide you with the abstract.
The categories “vessel wall damage” and “disturbance of blood flow” from Virchow’s Triad can easily be used to categorize some well known risk factors for ischemic stroke. This is different for the category “increased clotting propensity”, also known as hypercoagulability. A meta-analysis shows that markers of hypercoagulability are stronger associated with the risk of first ischemic stroke compared to myocardial infarction. This effect seems to be most pronounced in women and in the young, as the RATIO case-control study provides a large portion of the data in this meta-analysis. Although interesting from a causal point of view, understanding the role of hypercoagulability in the etiology of first ischemic stroke in the young does not directly lead to major actionable clinical insights. For this, we need to shift our focus to stroke recurrence. However, literature on the role of hypercoagulability on stroke recurrence is limited. Some emerging treatment targets can however can be identified. These include coagulation Factor XI and XII for which now small molecule and antisense oligonucleotide treatments are being developed and tested. Their relative small role in hemostasis, but critical role in pathophysiological thrombus formation suggest that targeting these factors could reduce stroke risk without increasing the risk of bleeds. The role of Neutrophilic Extracellular Traps, negatively charged long DNA molecules that could act as a scaffold for the coagulation proteins, is also not completely understood although there are some indications that they could be targeted as co-treatment for thrombolysis.
I am looking forward to this conference, not in the least to talk to some friends, get inspired by great speakers and science and enjoy the beautiful surroundings of Kuopio.
postscript: here are my slides that I used in Kuopio
bob siegerink 