Severity of leukoaraiosis in large vessel atherosclerotic disease.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The severity of white matter hyperintensity, or leukoaraiosis, is a marker of cerebrovascular disease. In stroke, WMH burden is strongly linked to lacunar infarction; however, impaired cerebral perfusion due to extracranial or intracranial atherosclerosis may also contribute to WMH burden. We sought to determine whether WMH burden is associated with extracranial or intracranial stenosis in patients with AIS. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patients with AIS with admission head/neck CTA and brain MR imaging were included in this analysis. "Extracranial stenosis" was defined as >50% stenosis in the extracranial ICA, and "intracranial," as >50% stenosis in either the middle, anterior, or posterior cerebral arteries on CTA, on either side. WMHV was determined by using a validated semiautomated protocol. Multiple regression was used to assess the relationship between WMHV and extracranial/intracranial atherosclerosis. RESULTS: Of 201 subjects, 51 (25.4%) had extracranial and 63 (31.5%) had intracranial stenosis. Mean age was 62 ± 15 years; 36% were women. Mean WMHV was 12.87 cm(3) in the extracranial and 8.59 cm(3) in the intracranial stenosis groups. In univariate analysis, age (P < .0001), SBP and DBP (P = .004), and HTN (P = .0003) were associated with WMHV. Extracranial stenosis was associated with greater WMHV after adjustment for intracranial stenosis (P = .04). In multivariate analysis including extracranial stenosis, only age (P < .0001) and HTN (P = .03) demonstrated independent effects on WMHV. CONCLUSIONS: In our cohort of patients with AIS, age and HTN were the strongest determinants of the WMHV severity. Future studies are warranted to unravel further association between WMHV and cerebral vessel atherosclerosis.

Tele-healthcare for diabetes management: A low cost automatic approach.

In this paper, a telemedicine system for managing diabetic patients with better care is presented. The system is an end to end solution which relies on the integration of front end (patient unit) and backend web server. A key feature of the system developed is the very low cost automated approach. The front-end of the system is capable of reading glucose measurements from any glucose meter and sending them automatically via existing networks to the back-end server. The back-end is designed and developed using n-tier web client architecture based on model-view-controller design pattern using open source technology, a cost effective solution. The back-end helps the health-care provider with data analysis; data visualization and decision support, and allows them to send feedback and therapeutic advice to patients from anywhere using a browser enabled device. This system will be evaluated during the trials which will be conducted in collaboration with a local hospital in phased manner.

White matter hyperintensity volume is increased in small vessel stroke subtypes.

OBJECTIVE: White matter hyperintensity (WMH) may be a marker of an underlying cerebral microangiopathy. Therefore, we hypothesized that WMH would be most severe in patients with lacunar stroke and intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), 2 types of stroke in which cerebral small vessel (SV) changes are pathophysiologically relevant. METHODS: We determined WMH volume (WMHV) in cohorts of prospectively ascertained patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS) (Massachusetts General Hospital [MGH], n = 628, and the Ischemic Stroke Genetics Study [ISGS], n = 263) and ICH (MGH, n = 122). RESULTS: Median WMHV was 7.5 cm³ (interquartile range 3.4-14.7 cm³) in the MGH AIS cohort (mean age 65 ± 15 years). MGH patients with larger WMHV were more likely to have lacunar stroke compared with cardioembolic (odds ratio [OR] = 1.87 per SD normally transformed WMHV), large artery (OR = 2.25), undetermined (OR = 1.87), or other (OR = 1.85) stroke subtypes (p < 0.03). These associations were replicated in the ISGS cohort (p = 0.03). In a separate analysis, greater WMHV was seen in ICH compared with lacunar stroke (OR = 1.2, p < 0.02) and in ICH compared with all ischemic stroke subtypes combined (OR = 1.34, p < 0.007). CONCLUSIONS: Greater WMH burden was associated with SV stroke compared with other ischemic stroke subtypes and, even more strongly, with ICH. These data, from 2 independent samples, support the model that increasing WMHV is a marker of more severe cerebral SV disease and provide further evidence for links between the biology of WMH and SV stroke.