STROKOG is a consortium of longitudinal studies of cognitive disorders following stroke, TIA or small vessel disease. Developed under the auspices of VASCOG (Society for the Study of Vascular Cognitive and Behavioural Disorders), it is the first international effort to harmonise work on post-stroke dementia. Currently there are 33 international studies participating in STROKOG, which include the following countries: Australia, Bulgaria, China, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Korea, Nigeria, Poland, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, The Netherlands, Scotland, Ireland, United Kingdom and the USA. In 2019, the following new studies joined STROKOG: Bulgarian Poststroke Study, Bulgaria; The HKU Stroke Cohort, Hong Kong; STRATEGIC, Australia. In 2019, the prestigious Neurology journal published the first STROKOG research paper written by CHeBA researchers. The paper focuses on the profile of and risk factors for post-stroke cognitive impairment in diverse ethno-regional groups; we found that diabetes, a history of past stroke, and to a lesser degree, hypertension, smoking and atrial fibrillation are related to poorer cognitive function at 1-6 months after stroke. Three external researchers from the UK and from Finland collaborated with CHeBA and worked on three separate STROKOG projects in 2019. Dr Eugene Tang from Newcastle University, UK led a project on validating dementia risk score models. Dr Tang found that dementia risk prediction models developed for the general population do not perform well in individuals with stroke.
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His paper is due to be published in 2020. Dr Clare Flach from King’s College London, UK has been examining stroke recovery associated with cognitive impairment. Dr Hanna Jokinen from the University of Helsinki Jess Lo, STROKOG in Finland is investigating Study Coordinator domain-specific cognitive impairment and depression as determinants of post-stroke functional disability. The latter two projects are on-going. In 2019 CHeBA researchers worked on a paper looking at diabetes, prediabetes on cognitive function after stroke. Based on data from 7 international studies, we found that diabetes is strongly associated with worse cognitive function after stroke, but not prediabetes. This paper is due to be published in the high-impact journal Stroke in 2020. CHeBA researchers also began working on the next major project looking at cognitive decline after stroke. Longitudinal data on cognitive assessment were requested from 9 international studies and harmonised. The CHeBA imaging team also proposed to form a Neuroimaging Work Group within STROKOG and a project harmonising MRI scans and analysing white matter hyperintensities and stroke. These projects are on-going in 2020. CHeBA was invited to present at the Vascular Neurodegeneration Symposium at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, the University of Melbourne in February. For a full list of studies involved, see: www.cheba. unsw.edu.au/consortia/strokog/studies
