TY  - JOUR
A1  - Gabriel, Katharina M. A.
A1  - Jírů-Hillmann, Steffi
A1  - Kraft, Peter
A1  - Selig, Udo
A1  - Rücker, Victoria
A1  - Mühler, Johannes
A1  - Dötter, Klaus
A1  - Keidel, Matthias
A1  - Soda, Hassan
A1  - Rascher, Alexandra
A1  - Schneider, Rolf
A1  - Pfau, Mathias
A1  - Hoffmann, Roy
A1  - Stenzel, Joachim
A1  - Benghebrid, Mohamed
A1  - Goebel, Tobias
A1  - Doerck, Sebastian
A1  - Kramer, Daniela
A1  - Haeusler, Karl Georg
A1  - Volkmann, Jens
A1  - Heuschmann, Peter U.
A1  - Fluri, Felix
T1  - Two years' experience of implementing a comprehensive telemedical stroke network comprising in mainly rural region: the Transregional Network for Stroke Intervention with Telemedicine (TRANSIT-Stroke)
JF  - BMC Neurology
N2  - Background 
Telemedicine improves the quality of acute stroke care in rural regions with limited access to specialized stroke care. We report the first 2 years' experience of implementing a comprehensive telemedical stroke network comprising all levels of stroke care in a defined region. 

Methods 
The TRANSIT-Stroke network covers a mainly rural region in north-western Bavaria (Germany). All hospitals providing acute stroke care in this region participate in TRANSIT-Stroke, including four hospitals with a supra-regional certified stroke unit (SU) care (level III), three of those providing teleconsultation to two hospitals with a regional certified SU (level II) and five hospitals without specialized SU care (level I). For a two-year-period (01/2015 to 12/2016), data of eight of these hospitals were available; 13 evidence-based quality indicators (QIs) related to processes during hospitalisation were evaluated quarterly and compared according to predefined target values between level-I- and level-II/III-hospitals. 

Results 
Overall, 7881 patients were included (mean age 74.6 years +/- 12.8; 48.4% female). In level-II/III-hospitals adherence of all QIs to predefined targets was high ab initio. In level-I-hospitals, three patterns of QI-development were observed: a) high adherence ab initio (31%), mainly in secondary stroke prevention; b) improvement over time (44%), predominantly related to stroke specific diagnosis and in-hospital organization; c) no clear time trends (25%). Overall, 10 out of 13 QIs reached predefined target values of quality of care at the end of the observation period. 

Conclusion 
The implementation of the comprehensive TRANSIT-Stroke network resulted in an improvement of quality of care in level-I-hospitals.
KW  - pilot project
KW  - care tempis
KW  - ischemic stroke
KW  - thrombolysis
KW  - areas
KW  - time
KW  - hospitals
KW  - mortality
KW  - outcomes
KW  - quality
Y1  - 2020
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-229214
VL  - 20
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Essig, Fabian
A1  - Kollikowski, Alexander M.
A1  - Pham, Mirko
A1  - Solymosi, László
A1  - Stoll, Guido
A1  - Haeusler, Karl Georg
A1  - Kraft, Peter
A1  - Schuhmann, Michael K.
T1  - Immunohistological analysis of neutrophils and neutrophil extracellular traps in human thrombemboli causing acute ischemic stroke
JF  - International Journal of Molecular Sciences
N2  - Ischemic stroke caused by thromboembolic occlusion of large cerebral arteries, such as the internal carotid (ICA) and/or the middle cerebral artery (MCA), is treated by mechanical thrombectomy (MT). MT allows salvage of the vessel-occluding thrombemboli, which most frequently originate from the left atrium or the left ventricle of the heart or from sites of plaque rupture within large arteries above the heart. Clot composition may influence the efficacy of (intravenous) thrombolysis and MT, respectively. We analyzed 37 human thrombemboli obtained from acute ischemic stroke patients during MT with special emphasis on histological staining of neutrophils and neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs). We found neutrophils as the main cellular component of cerebral thrombemboli but encountered considerable morphological heterogeneity. Neutrophils accumulated in the border region of fibrin-rich structures indicating possible interaction of neutrophils with distinct structural thrombembolus components. Web-like NETs were found in 35 of 37 thrombemboli in varying amounts. NETs were almost exclusively found within fibrin-rich areas. Importantly, stroke etiology, age and present oral anticoagulation was associated with morphological patterns and the amount of neutrophils. Correlation of histological data and imaging data revealed that relative Hounsfield units of cerebral thrombemboli positively correlated with the amount of red blood cells. In summary, our results demonstrate that neutrophils and NETs are substantial constituents of cerebral thrombemboli and contribute to their structural complexity.
KW  - acute ischemic stroke
KW  - thrombemboli
KW  - neutrophils
KW  - NETs
KW  - immunohistochemistry
Y1  - 2020
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-236192
SN  - 1422-0067
VL  - 21
IS  - 19
ER  -