Regist of the Ictus Code of Catalonia, last year the HUMT treated a total of 234 Stroke Code and 59 patients were referred to the Clinical Hospital to receive treatment with intraarterial thrombectomy -which is used when there is no response to intravenous thrombolysis or this is contraindicated- that currently HUMT does not provide this mechanical intra-arterial rescue treatment. In addition, an increase in transfers is expected this year as the application of treatment for mechanical thrombectomy increases from 8 to 24 h from the onset of symptoms and consequently the volume of patients susceptible to receiving it will increase.


The HUMT has all the technical and human resources to perform this technique and can treat patients who are candidates for thrombectomy as other tertiary stroke centers, which are currently all located in the metropolitan area of ​​Barcelona. The HUMT implemented the Stroke Code in 2006 and therefore has a history of 12 years in its application and with benchmark results in the last 4 years. It works with a multidisciplinary organizational model-integrating professionals from the Emergency Service, Intensive Medicine, Radiology and Neurology- and in terms of technology, it has two haemodynamic rooms and advanced imaging equipment.


In brain strokes the speed of action is a critical factor for patient recovery (both functional and cognitive) since it is a totally "time-dependent" disease and is also essential to improve the prognosis of the patient with an acute stroke . This circumstance strengthens the leadership of the HUMT in terms of action before the Stroke Code, with a time of 26 minutes.


The MútuaTerrassa Teaching and Research Foundation, committed to the study of this disease: "The amount of genetic regions that can cause stroke triples"


A DNA study of 520,000 individuals from around the world has identified 22 new genetic risk factors for stroke, tripling the number of genetic regions that are known to influence the risk of stroke. The study was developed by the international research consortium MEGASTROKE and the results have recently been published in the online version of the NatureGenetics journal.


The work was led by Dr. Israel Fernández Cadenas, principal investigator of the Laboratory of Pharmacogenomics and Neurovascular Genetics of the Teaching and Research Foundation MútuaTerrassa and of the research group in Neurovascular Diseases of the Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR), Dr. Caty Carrera, from the research group in Neurovascular Diseases of the Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR); and Dr. Jordi Jiménez Conde, from the Neurovascular Research Group of the Hospital del Mar Institute of Medical Research (IMIM).

The results show genetic influences shared with multiple vascular conditions related to stroke, especially blood pressure, but also coronary artery disease or venous thromboembolism, among others. The comparison of these results with extensive biological databases provides new clues about the mechanisms of stroke and illustrates the potential of genetics to identify pharmacological targets for its treatment.
According to Dr. Fernandez, "the Megastroke study is not just a genetic study, but the most important part of this project has been the discovery of new metabolic pathways that are implicated in the risk of developing a stroke. important field of study with the aim of finding new therapeutic targets and new drugs to prevent the onset of this pathology ".

The consortium integrates stroke research groups from Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Japan, and the USA. UU., Iceland, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Estonia and Poland, Singapore, Australia and Canada. This large-scale international collaboration was facilitated by the InternationalStrokeGeneticsConsortium, which has brought together experts in stroke genetics from around the world over the past 10 years.



To read the entire content of the NatureGenetics article