Background: Cerebral ischaemia initiates an inflammatory response in the brain and periphery. We assessed the relationship between peak values of plasma interleukin-6 (IL-6) in the first week after ischaemic stroke, with measures of stroke severity and outcome.

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Oxygen use in ambulances is very common, equivalent to 2.2 million episodes annually in the UK. The quality of oxygen use is suboptimal, especially for patients with COPD. Emergency oxygen therapy will become simpler when new evidence-based UK emergency oxygen guidelines are published, and it is hoped that future audits will show better protocol adherence.

Background: As critical mediators of local and systemic inflammatory responses, cytokines are produced in the brain following ischaemic stroke. Some have been detected in the circulation of stroke patients, but their role and source is unclear. Focusing primarily on interleukin(IL)-1-related mechanisms, we serially measured plasma inflammatory markers, and the production of cytokines by whole blood, from 36 patients recruited within 12 h and followed up to 1 year after acute ischaemic stroke (AIS).

Background: A reliable method of infarct volume measurement is needed if infarct volume is to be used as an outcome measure in clinical stroke trials. We investigated the reproducibility of a semi-automated method of computed tomography (CT) infarct volume measurement amongst three stroke research fellows with no formal neuroradiology training and two consultant neuroradiologists. Methods: CT brain scans for volumetric analysis were performed at 5 to 7 days in 34 patients with acute ischaemic stroke, of which 28 scans showed visible recent infarction. Five observers independently traced the infarct boundary on digitised images with a cursor. Volumetric analysis incorporated pixel thresholding with preset Hounsfield thresholds. One of the observers repeated the analyses on 21 of the scans in order to assess intraobserver variation. Results: Median infarct volume was 35.7 cm³ (range 0.2–318 cm³). The closest limits of observed agreement (mean ± 1.96 SD) between pairs of observers were between a research fellow and neuroradiologist (–29 to 21 cm³). The widest limits of agreement were between a different research fellow and the same neuroradiologist (–39.1 to 41.4 cm³). The limits of agreement between infarct volumes measured on two separate occasions by one of the research fellows were –7 to 8 cm³. Conclusions: Intraobserver reliability of CT infarct volume measurements performed by a stroke research fellow was superior to interobserver reliability between any pair of observers. The wide limits of agreement between different observers using manual tracing may not be acceptable in multicentre trials of acute ischaemic stroke treatment, but volume measurement by a single observer appears to be more reliable.