STROKE-CARD – EpiCenter

Motivation for this clinical trial

Stroke is a serious life-threatening medical condition that occurs when the blood supply to part of the brain is cut off. Patients who have suffered a stroke are at increased risk for cardiovascular disease and show increased mortality rates. The cumulative risk for stroke recurrence is 10% in the first year and over 25% in the first 5 years. Post-stroke disease management programmes may help to reduce the long-term outcome of stroke patients.

The STROKE-CARD programme

STROKE-CARD is a multifaceted pragmatic disease management programme in patients with an acute stroke or high-risk transient ischaemic attacks. It combines intensified multi-domain secondary prevention, detection and treatment of post-stroke complications, and patient self-empowerment. Patients have an additional in-hospital appointment three months after the stroke event to re-assess risk factors and monitor post-stroke complications. Furthermore, they can access an online portal, where they can enter risk factor information (such as blood pressure, body weight, amount of cigarettes smoked, time physically active) and receive personalised feedback.

Our principal hypothesis is that the STROKE-CARD programme could help reduce the occurrence of cardiovascular events and lead to a better quality of life after 12 months of follow-up.

To test this hypothesis, we recruited patients at two trial centres: (i) the Medical University of Innsbruck and (ii) the Krankenhaus Barmherzige Brüder Wien. Patients with an acute ischaemic stroke or a transient ischaemic attack (TIA) of an ABCD2 score ≥3 were included.

Data of the STROKE-CARD trial are cleaned, harmonised and analysed by members of the clinical epidemiology team (Peter Willeit, Lisa Seekircher, Lena Tschiderer).

The STROKE-CARD Study Group

Principal investigator: Johann Willeit

STROKE-CARD data management and analysis centre: Lena Tschiderer, Lisa Seekircher, Peter Willeit

Study group: Markus Anliker, Christian Boehme, Julia Ferrari, Martin Furtner, Andrea Griesmacher, Viktoria Hasibeder, Stefan Kiechl, Gerhard Klingenschmid, Michael Knoflach, Stefan Krebs, Clemens Lang, Wilfried Lang, Lukas Mayer, Anna Neuner, Raimund Pechlaner, Thomas Porpaczy, Gerhard Rumpold, Christoph Schmidauer, Gudrun Schoenherr, Lisa Seekircher, Martin Sojer, Christine Span, Lydia Thiemann, Thomas Toell, Lena Tschiderer, Marlies Wichtl, Johann Willeit, Karin Willeit, Peter Willeit.