Newswise — BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The 2014 International Stroke Conference begins Wednesday, Feb. 12. The University of Alabama at Birmingham will contribute newsworthy presentations and moderators, and it has a number of experts available to weigh in on the news coming out of the conference:
• Donna Arnett, Ph.D. – Arnett is immediate past-president of the American Heart Association. She is professor and chair of the Department of Epidemiology in the UAB School of Public Health.
• Gyanendra Kumar, M.D. – Kumar is researching the use of high density-diffuse optical tomography neuroimaging technology to study the brains of patients with acute ischemic stroke. He is an assistant professor in the Division of Cerebrovascular Disease in the UAB School of Medicine.
• George Howard, Dr.P.H. – Howard is the principal investigator of the statistical analysis center for the Carotid Revascularization Endarterectomy vs. Stenting Trial (CREST) and is PI of the REasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study. He is a professor in the Department of Biostatistics in the UAB School of Public Health.
• Virginia Howard, Ph.D. – Howard is a co-PI on the REGARDS study and CREST as well as PI of a grant studying Childhood Socioeconomic Factors and Age-Related Cognitive and Vascular Health. She is a professor in the Department of Epidemiology in the UAB School of Public Health.
• Suzanne Judd, Ph.D. – Judd is an expert in the role of vitamin D and blood pressure and dietary assessment. She is a co-investigator in the REGARDS study and an associate professor in the Department of Biostatistics in the UAB School of Public Health.
• Leslie McClure, Ph.D. – McClure is the PI of the statistical analysis center for the Secondary Prevention of Small Subcortical Strokes (SPS3) and an expert in clinical trials, in addition to also being a co-investigator in REGARDS.
• Kara Sands, M.D. – Sands will have a moderated poster presentation on basilar occlusions and symptomatic intracranial stenosis. Sands is an assistant professor in the Division of Cerebrovascular Disease in the UAB School of Medicine.
UAB presentations include (please observe noted media embargo dates and times.):
• Prevalence and predictors of apparent treatment-resistance hypertension among individuals with a history of physician-diagnosed stroke or TIA (embargoed until 7 a.m. PT, Thursday, Feb. 13) – Virginia Howard, Ph.D., will present her findings on whom the control of blood pressure post-stroke has proved to be a challenge for. Hypertension is considered to be the most important risk factor for stroke, and management of hypertension is one of the most effective strategies in prevention of stroke. But post-stroke blood pressure control has been an issue for many reasons: medication noncompliance, inadequate treatment or inappropriate therapy.
• The impact of “traditional” risk factors for incident versus recurrent stroke – (embargoed until 8 a.m. PT, Thursday, Feb. 13) – George Howard, Dr.P.H., will present his findings on whether or not the known risk factors of a stroke are also the same for a subsequent stroke. Previous research has shown what the risk factors for a first stroke are; however, the risk factors for second strokes are not as clear, and there are virtually no data that compares whether the risk factors are as important for a second stroke as for a first. Howard’s REGARDS study is one of the few studies with enough data on those with and without strokes to answer these questions.
About UABKnown for its innovative and interdisciplinary approach to education at both the graduate and undergraduate levels, the University of Alabama at Birmingham is an internationally renowned research university and academic medical center and the state of Alabama’s largest employer, with some 23,000 employees and an economic impact exceeding $5 billion annually on the state. The five pillars of UAB’s mission deliver knowledge that will change your world: the education of students, who are exposed to multidisciplinary learning and a new world of diversity; research, the creation of new knowledge; patient care, the outcome of ‘bench-to-bedside’ translational knowledge; service to the community at home and around the globe, from free clinics in local neighborhoods to the transformational experience of the arts; and the economic development of Birmingham and Alabama. Learn more at www.uab.edu.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The University of Alabama at Birmingham is a separate, independent institution from the University of Alabama, which is located in Tuscaloosa. Please use University of Alabama at Birmingham on first reference and UAB on all subsequent references.
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