Stroke News and Research

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A stroke is a medical emergency. Strokes happen when blood flow to your brain stops. Within minutes, brain cells begin to die. There are two kinds of stroke. The more common kind, called ischemic stroke, is caused by a blood clot that blocks or plugs a blood vessel in the brain. The other kind, called hemorrhagic stroke, is caused by a blood vessel that breaks and bleeds into the brain. "Mini-strokes" or transient ischemic attacks (TIAs), occur when the blood supply to the brain is briefly interrupted.

AHA calls for lifelong brain health strategy to prevent cognitive decline

The AHA scientific statement calls for a life-course approach to brain health that integrates cognitive, emotional, behavioral, vascular, environmental, inflammatory, sleep, microbiome, and social factors. It highlights how early-life exposures, mental health, pollution, chronic inflammation, poor sleep, gut dysbiosis, and socioeconomic adversity may shape brain resilience and later-life cognitive decline.

29 Apr 2026

Study suggests a U-shaped link between cholesterol levels and mortality among Chinese adults

A new commentary published in Engineering highlights key findings from a large multinational cohort study that re-evaluates cholesterol management for cardiovascular and chronic disease prevention, suggesting a U-shaped association between cholesterol levels and mortality among Chinese adults that challenges the conventional "lower is better" approach.

28 Apr 2026

New scientific statement defines brain health across life

Brain health isn't determined only by genetics or what happens later in life. A growing body of research shows that a range of factors-from mental health and sleep to environment, lifestyle and social conditions-play a powerful role in shaping how the brain functions and ages.

28 Apr 2026

Scientists uncover why brain damage continues after stroke

Every stroke begins with a sudden interruption of blood flow in the brain. But what happens afterward—why neurons continue to lose function and die over the following days—has remained one of the most important unanswered questions in neuroscience.

28 Apr 2026

Noninvasive brain monitoring reveals hidden oxygen deprivation in ICU patients

In neurological intensive care, it is quickly learned that the brain cannot wait. As the most sensitive organ in the human body, it can sustain irreversible damage after just a few minutes of severe hypoxia.

27 Apr 2026

Ablation can lead to better outcomes for patients with advanced atrial fibrillation

A minimally invasive heart procedure may be a better first-line treatment than medication for people living with advanced forms of atrial fibrillation, according to a major international clinical trial led by researchers at the University of British Columbia.

27 Apr 2026

Twice-yearly blood pressure treatment could reshape hypertension care, but doctors warn against a “fire-and-forget” approach

Long-acting RNA interference therapy for hypertension could shift blood pressure control from daily pill-taking to scheduled, system-led protection. But the authors warn that this “vaccine-like” model must preserve lifestyle support, monitoring, and follow-up to avoid clinical disengagement.

27 Apr 2026

Advanced heart, kidney and metabolic disease linked to higher cancer risk

People with advanced heart, kidney and metabolic disease may face a higher risk of developing cancer, according to new research published today in the American Heart Association's peer-reviewed scientific journal Circulation: Population Health and Outcomes.

27 Apr 2026

American Heart Association backs innovators advancing equitable health solutions

Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death in the United States and drives nearly $415 billion in annual health‑related costs, according to the American Heart Association, highlighting the need for scalable, real‑world health innovation.

24 Apr 2026

Elevated Lp(a) levels associated with residual cardiovascular risk

New data analyzing more than 20,000 patients from three major NIH studies show that elevated Lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)] is associated with residual cardiovascular risk and warrants aggressive risk reduction.

24 Apr 2026

M-TEER procedure effectively treats mitral regurgitation in patients with calcification

Results from a new analysis show that patients with mitral annular calcification (MAC) who undergo minimally invasive mitral transcatheter edge-to-edge repair (M-TEER) experience similar reductions in mitral regurgitation (MR) and improvement in quality of life compared to those seen in patients without calcification.

24 Apr 2026

COVID-19 patients with STEMI show higher one-year mortality rates

Findings from the North American COVID-19 Myocardial Infarction (NACMI) registry demonstrate significantly higher one-year mortality rates in patients with COVID-19 and ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) compared to patients with STEMI alone.

24 Apr 2026

Preliminary model developed to improve cardiovascular risk prediction in Latin America and the Caribbean

A preliminary model to improve the prediction of cardiovascular risk in Latin America and the Caribbean was presented today at ESC Preventive Cardiology 2026, the annual congress of the European Association of Preventive Cardiology (EAPC), a branch of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).

24 Apr 2026

Drinking coffee alters your microbiome, mood, and memory

Coffee consumption influences the microbiota-gut-brain axis, affecting cognitive performance and emotional regulation through complex biological pathways.

24 Apr 2026

Heatwaves and coldwaves linked to increase in major cardiovascular events

Heatwaves and coldwaves are associated with increases in major cardiovascular events that are exacerbated by air pollution.

24 Apr 2026

Study explores early autism detection using wearable movement sensors

UCLA Health researchers are seeking to develop a new wearable technology to catch one of the earliest but often overlooked signs of autism and other developmental conditions in infants.

23 Apr 2026

APOLLO AI learns from 25 billion medical events to predict future disease

APOLLO is a multimodal temporal foundation model trained on 25.2 billion medical events from 7.2 million patients across 33 years of Mass General Brigham records, integrating 28 medical modalities into unified “virtual patient representations.” Across 322 downstream tasks, the model showed strong performance in disease prediction, treatment-response stratification, hospital operations, and patient retrieval, supporting the idea of more computable, data-driven medicine.

23 Apr 2026

Tirzepatide significantly reduces cardiovascular risk in high-risk patients

Two new studies show that tirzepatide, a glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) receptor and glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist (RA), significantly reduces cardiovascular risk in high-risk patients, including those undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and those with obesity undergoing transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR).

23 Apr 2026

New human cell model replicates key mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases

Researchers at LMU have developed a human cell model that replicates key mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases - with potential for novel therapies.

23 Apr 2026

Severe strokes significantly increase the risk of progressive dementia

As stroke severity increases, the risk of progressive cognitive decline and dementia substantially escalates, according to a national study led by Michigan Medicine researchers.

23 Apr 2026