Das virtuelle internationale Schlaganfallstudien Archiv (VISTA): bedeutung für die Schlaganfallforschung

In the last 15 years many studies have been performed on the treatment of acute stroke. The Virtual International Stroke Trials Archive (VISTA) is an investigator-initiated data base that contains prospectively collected data from patients with acute stroke recruited from controlled trials and is used to answer scientific questions. Analyses have shown that patients with very high blood pressure at the time of admission to a stroke unit have a poor prognosis. Haemorrhagic transformation of an ischaemic infarct is seen frequently in patients with cardio-embolic strokes. Haemorrhagic transformation follows a bimodal distribution with a poor prognosis when occurring late after stroke. In up to 7 % of patients with acute stroke, new onset atrial fibrillation is detected in the stroke unit. VISTA has enabled the establishment and validation of prognostic models for patients with ischaemic or haemorrhagic stroke. The most important risk factor for a poor prognosis in patients with cerebral bleeding is the growth of the initial haemorrhage. On a world-wide comparison, the prognosis of stroke patients in Germany is poorer than in many other countries.