Proceedings of the Princeton Conference on Cerebrovascular Disease. April 2-4, 2004, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.

Abstract

The Princeton Conference has a one-half century history as a unique, highly focused forum for the presentation and discussion of current scientific information and future directions in stroke research. The 24th Princeton Conference on Cerebrovascular Disease was held in Baltimore, Maryland, April 2 to 4, 2004, at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront Hotel. This conference focused on the current status and future directions of stroke pathophysiology, diagnosis and treatment, with emphasis on cellular and molecular mechanisms of ischemic cell death and cell repair, and clinical aspects of imaging, risk factors, and therapeutic strategies in stroke. There were 10 major areas of presentation and discussion. The meeting began with a discussion of vascular dementia and included discussion of amyloid and epidemiology of Alzheimer disease and vascular dementias. The next discussion concerned multimodal imaging and its future in stroke. The role of sex steroids in stroke was the next area of discussion. Estrogen and progesterone were discussed as potential neuroprotection agents, and their differences as neuroprotectants in animal models was discussed in light of the recent major negative clinical trials. The ischemic penumbra, what it is, how to image it and its molecular identification …