Childhood stroke is at least as common as brain tumours in children and may be as common as all childhood cancer but the condition is under-recognised by both the public and the medical profession. A new study hopes to address some of the large gaps in the understanding of this condition.
The study, known as the 'Study of Outcome of Childhood Stroke' (SOCS) is a research project co-ordinated by researchers at the University of Bristol's Institute of Child Life and Health and funded by the Stroke Association. The aim of the study is to investigate the epidemiology of stroke in children and to research children's outcome following stroke.
This will be the first time the outcome from child stroke has been studied in a systematic and detailed way across a very large population. The study will cover half the UK population (approximately 6.3 million children are in the study area), with paediatric neurologists and paediatricians, physiotherapists and radiologists across the country collaborating on the study.
In children the average time taken from the onset of symptoms to presentation to a medical professional is 5.5 hours and the time from presentation to scan is 6.6 hours. This means the vast majority of children are diagnosed too late to benefit from treatments that can potentially be life saving or which may significantly improve the outcome.
The researchers hope to be informed of all children who have had a stroke in the study area from 1 July 2008 until 30 June 2009. They will collect clinical information from the medical notes and brain scans and then visit children at home one year after the stroke. At that time they will conduct assessments and administer questionnaires that will assess the children's motor and sensory skills, cognitive abilities, behaviour, quality of life, and activity limitation. They will also find out about any recurrences of stroke. The researchers will then be able to relate the outcome to demographic and clinical factors.
Dr Finbar O'Callaghan, Senior Clinical Lecturer in the Division of Child Health at Bristol University and chief investigator for the study, said: "Stroke in children is not as rare as many people may believe. The incidence is not fully known but at least one child per day has a stroke in the UK and it may be as high as five per day.