The NINDS Stroke Progress Review Group Final Analysis and Recommendations

Abstract

As the nation’s primary supporter of basic and clinical stroke research, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) strives to pursue the most pressing and promising scientific opportunities. During the past decade, NINDS has led a stroke planning effort performed by the Stroke Progress Review Group (PRG), an external group of prominent stroke scientists, clinicians, and consumer advocates.1 The third report of the Stroke PRG, summarized here, was posted in January 2012.2 It is the product of ≈200 stroke experts working in 16 topic-related workgroups and provides a comprehensive view of stroke research advances, challenges, and scientific opportunities. The Stroke PRG reports serve to inform the research community and funding agencies, including the National Institutes of Health that invests more than $300 million annually in stroke research. In 2012, the NINDS used the Stroke PRG report as the foundation for engaging the global stroke community in building consensus around the highest stroke research priorities. Short summaries and 2 to 3 research priorities from each workgroup follow, and bulleted versions of the priorities are listed in Table 1. The topics are ordered loosely from basic to clinical research, although many of the recommendations are crosscutting and overlapping. ### Imaging Neuroimaging is now being used for selection, monitoring, and testing of different therapeutic interventions. Identification of penumbral tissue using both MRI and computed tomographic techniques has markedly advanced. Functional imaging markers are also being developed, which could advance our knowledge of the underlying mechanisms of brain injuries and serve as surrogate outcomes for clinical trials. New molecular and cellular neuroimaging technologies are being used to define pathophysiological mechanisms. From a practical standpoint, the most cost-effective imaging workup for patients with both ischemic stroke and intracerebral hemorrhage, based on which modalities lead to treatment decisions that have been proven to …