FIND Stroke Recovery - A Longitudinal Study

Stroke survivors frequently suffer disabilities including motor and cognitive problems, impairments in speech and vision, depression, and several other disabilities that worsen their quality of life. Some will recover fully after stroke and others will have permanent impairments. Few studies show trajectories of recovery in different domains after stroke, hence recovery time-lines are not fully known. Also, the whole range of mechanisms leading to recovery are not precisely known (1). To monitor those mechanisms one can utilize biomarkers.In parallel to the studies of recovery, studies on time series of biomarkers after stroke are limited (2). Hence, a crucial first step to increase knowledge on biomarkers of stroke recovery is to gain a better understanding of the time course of both stroke recovery and biomarker patterns. Biomarkers can later be used for outcome predictions after stroke.

Investigators enrol patients presenting with first-ever ischemic stroke or intracerebral haemorrhage admitted to the stroke units at the Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg, Sweden.The inclusion criteria are:• first-ever acute ischemic stroke; or intracerebral hemorrhage.The exclusion criteria are:pre-stroke mRS score of ≥3;severe neurodegenerative disease, cerebral neoplasm or terminal illness; andpatients considered unlikely to be able to participate in or to understand and/or comply with study procedures during follow-up visits at the hospital.