VASCage research on deep learning based image processing, stroke prevention studies, evidence-based rehabilitation research and other topics was featured in a television documentary on stroke.
Every day, around 70 people in Austria suffer a stroke – often with devastating consequences. Strokes are the most common cause of permanent disability – despite the fact that, thanks to better methods of acute care and the establishment of a network of stroke units, the mortality rate following strokes has been practically halved in the last 25 years. Thrombectomy, i.e. the mechanical removal of large blood clots in the brain, which has been perfected in recent years, plays a special role in this. However, there are still a relatively large number of people affected who suffer more or less severe consequential damage despite successful thrombectomy.
Research efforts aim to further minimise this consequential damage. Using the latest imaging methods, the pathological mechanisms of strokes are also becoming increasingly better understood. Artificial intelligence as researched at VASCage can also be of great help in the future, particularly in the case of strokes. In addition, molecular biology is providing exciting insights into the basics of atherosclerosis with the help of organoids produced from stem cells, which in turn are obtained from the blood of stroke patients. Similar efforts are being made in the field of biomarkers to predict strokes and their consequences in the future.
Thanks to new, technically supported rehabilitation measures as researched at VASCage, the late effects of strokes can also be treated much better. Thanks to modern medicine, the horror that strokes still cause is becoming increasingly smaller – this is the central theme of the film. This new “treffpunkt medizin” production sheds light on current research developments in the field of stroke treatment using patient stories from all over Austria and the work of Austrian doctors and scientists in this field.
ORF III treffpunkt medizin „GegenSchlag“ https://tv.orf.at/program/orf3/treffpunkt794.html
