News

For millions of women, combined hormonal contraceptives are a part of their daily life – providing a convenient and effective option for preventing pregnancy and managing their menstrual cycle.

But new findings are sounding the alarm on a serious, and often overlooked, risk: stroke.

According to recent findings presented at the European Stroke Organisation Conference, combined oral hormonal contraceptives (which contains both oestrogen and progestogen) may significantly increase the chance of women experiencing a cryptogenic stroke. This is a sudden and serious type of stroke that occurs with no obvious cause.

Surprisingly, in younger adults – particularly women – cryptogenic strokes make up approximately 40% of all strokes. This suggests there may be sex-specific factors which contribute to this risk – such as hormonal contraception use. These recently-presented findings lend themselves to this theory.

At this year’s conference, researchers presented findings from the Secreto study. This is an international investigation that has been conducted into the causes of unexplained strokes in young people aged 18 to 49. The study enrolled 608 patients with cryptogenic ischaemic stroke from 13 different European countries.

One of their most striking discoveries was that women who used combined oral contraceptives were three times more likely to experience a cryptogenic stroke compared to non-users. These results stood, even after researchers adjusted for other factors which may have contributed to stroke risk (such as obesity and history of migraines).

Valkyrie Industries was awarded a grant through the Biomedical Catalyst 2024 competition by Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). The funding will support the continued development of v-health, Valkyrie’s platform designed for neuromuscular rehabilitation using functional electrical stimulation (FES) and extended reality (XR).

The project is backed by King’s College London, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.

The study will enrol 70 stroke survivors across the Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and the 6 Hobbs Rehabilitation sites in the South West and East. Focusing on individuals across a wide range of stroke recovery with wrist weakness, the research will assess the impact of the v-health platform during motor learning tasks.

More than 70% of people experiencing stroke suffer upper-limb dysfunction, which can significantly limit independence in daily life. The growing strain on national healthcare resources, coupled with the rising demand for personalised, home-based rehabilitation, along with increased familiarity with digital technologies, has set the stage for developing an advanced therapeutics system consisting of a wearable solution aimed at complementing current stroke rehabilitation to enhance recovery outcomes.

Very long-term friend and supporter of ARNI, Professor Cherry Kilbride , and her colleagues, have developed an advanced prototype integrating electromyography smart sensors, functional electrical stimulation, and virtual reality technologies in a closed-loop system that is capable of supporting personalised recovery journeys.

The outcome; Nura, is a more engaging and accessible rehabilitation experience, designed and evaluated through the participation of stroke survivors.  It features a comfortable sleeve with embedded fabric electrodes and a detachable “puck” that delivers FES to the arm muscles to aid in rehabilitation. The device is controlled by a companion tablet app that provides gamified exercises to motivate users and features simple, one-touch controls for FES intensity adjustment.

According to a recent analysis from the @OfficeForNationalStatistics, the average stroke survivor loses £18,785 in earnings over a five year period, from the moment of their diagnosis. This is more than:

▪️Cancer
▪️Heart failure
▪️Heart attack
▪️Chronic kidney disease
▪️Diabetes
▪️Respiratory conditions
▪️Musculoskeletal conditions

From these conditions, stroke survivors were also least able to stay in permanent employment, four years after their diagnosis. This is clear evidence that more needs to be done to provide financial security for stroke survivors and their families, and yet the current Government insists on making it more difficult for people living with disabilities and long-term health conditions to access benefits like Personal Independence Payment (PIP).

We already know how difficult stroke survivors find the process of applying for PIP, and how many people are unsuccessful. If the Government continues with its current plan to introduce stricter measures and barriers to PIP and financial support, more and more stroke survivors are going to be left with less and less.

The largest study of a spatial inattention therapy to take place anywhere in the world is underway at the University of East Anglia and taking place at eight major stroke centres across England.

There are 1.3 million stroke survivors in the UK, with an estimated 390,000 of those suffering from spatial inattention. The condition can be highly persistent, with 40% of stroke survivors continuing to experience symptoms a year post-stroke.

Currently there is no effective treatment for spatial inattention. This new trial is helping to fill the gap in the urgent search for successful treatments.

A stroke is caused by blood supply being cut off to part of the brain, killing brain cells. This can affect the brain’s ability to interpret information. In some cases, this can make the stroke survivor lose attention to things on one side of their body. This means that even if they have good eyesight, their brain does not process the information it’s getting from the impaired side, resulting in a disabling cognitive condition called ‘spatial inattention’ or ‘spatial neglect’.   

SIGHT (Spatial Inattention Grasping Therapy) requires those suffering from spatial neglect to grasp and balance rods with their less affected hand. Because of the condition, the rods tilt during the first attempts, but feeling and seeing the rod tilt improves performance, which in turn increases attention to the impaired side. 

The study will also explore why some people benefit more from therapy than others. To help identify who might benefit most, the trial will measure grasping, vision, cognition, stroke severity and brain structure and function.

There is currently no effective treatment for spatial inattention and people affected by it often have poor recovery and long-term disability. However this new therapy, SIGHT, has already shown some early promise in improving the condition. This low-cost, portable therapy, if found to be effective at improving inattention, could benefit millions of people around the world.

A Canadian research group has found evidence not only that doing more exercise is associated with greater gains in function and motor recovery but that cardiorespiratory exercise aids stroke recovery by promoting neuroplasticity.

Despite the benefits of cardio exercise early post-stroke, physiotherapists perceive that people who have had a stroke have rehabilitation goals related to improving physical function rather than addressing physiological impairments underlying function such as low cardiorespiratory fitness, which leads them to de-prioritize cardio exercise during limited therapy time.

Few clinical trials investigating the benefits of doing cardio exercise during stroke rehabilitation on functional recovery have been conducted to date but systematic reviews have reported that people with stroke who complete cardio exercise experience improved certain aspects of cognitive function, such as attention and processing speed, but not memory, problem-solving, executive function, or working memory.

Providing further evidence for a link between cardio exercise and improved outcomes, the group found that higher total time spent in cardio exercise correlated with greater improvement in total FIM (Functional Independence Measure), FIM motor and cognitive sub-scores, FAC, and CMSA arm, leg, and foot scores. These results indicate that a higher dose (ie, increased duration) of cardio exercise could lead to greater gains in functional independence.

Sarah Thompson, Augustine J. Devasahayam, Cynthia J. Danells, David Jagroop, Elizabeth L. Inness, Avril Mansfield,
Cardiorespiratory exercise during rehabilitation is associated with improved functional recovery early post-stroke: A cohort study,
Annals of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine, Volume 68, Issue 8, 2025.

Read more at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877065725000715

A new “orange” ambulance category will be introduced in Wales this winter to improve emergency care for stroke patients currently grouped within broader amber calls. Under the new system, specialist nurses and paramedics will screen 999 calls to identify patients with stroke or STEMI heart attacks—where blood flow to the heart is completely blocked—who need a faster response and specialist care before arriving at hospital.

The aim is to better direct time-critical cases to specialist pre-hospital treatment. Stroke patients are currently within the amber category, which covers about 70 per cent of all 999 calls in Wales. The new orange category will not have a specific response time target, but average and longest response times will be recorded, along with the type and quality of care provided before hospital arrival.

Alongside orange, two additional categories will replace the current amber group: yellow, for cases requiring further clinical assessment to determine the best response, and green, for issues such as blocked catheters that may need community care or planned transport. The changes follow updates earlier this month to how the most urgent 999 calls are categorised. A purple category was introduced for patients in cardiac or respiratory arrest, and a red emergency category for cases such as major trauma. These categories carry a target average response time of six to eight minutes. A “video triage” pilot scheme is also underway in five areas, allowing paramedics to consult hospital stroke specialists in real time before the patient arrives.