Introduction: Stroke is one of the leading causes of death in Latin America, a region with countless gaps to be addressed to decrease its burden. In 2018, at the first Latin American Stroke Ministerial Meeting, stroke physician and healthcare manager representatives from 13 countries signed the Declaration of Gramado with the priorities to improve the region, with the commitment to implement all evidence-based strategies for stroke care. The second meeting in March 2020 reviewed the achievements in 2 years and discussed new objectives. This paper will review the 2-year advances and future plans of the Latin American alliance for stroke.Method: In March 2020, a survey based on the Declaration of Gramado items was sent to the neurologists participants of the Stroke Ministerial Meetings. The results were confirmed with representatives of the Ministries of Health and leaders from the countries at the second Latin American Stroke Ministerial Meeting.Results: In 2 years, public stroke awareness initiatives increased from 25 to 75% of countries. All countries have started programs to encourage physical activity, and there has been an increase in the number of countries that implement, at least partially, strategies to identify and treat hypertension, diabetes, and lifestyle risk factors. Programs to identify and treat dyslipidemia and atrial fibrillation still remained poor. The number of stroke centers increased from 322 to 448, all of them providing intravenous thrombolysis, with an increase in countries with stroke units. All countries have mechanical thrombectomy, but mostly restricted to a few private hospitals. Pre-hospital organization remains limited. The utilization of telemedicine has increased but is restricted to a few hospitals and is not widely available throughout the country. Patients have late, if any, access to rehabilitation after hospital discharge.Conclusion: The initiative to collaborate, exchange experiences, and unite societies and governments to improve stroke care in Latin America has yielded good results. Important advances have been made in the region in terms of increasing the number of acute stroke care services, implementing reperfusion treatments and creating programs for the detection and treatment of risk factors. We hope that this approach can reduce inequalities in stroke care in Latin America and serves as a model for other under-resourced environments.

Highlights Stroke cases continue to rise in the COVID-19 pandemic Stroke presents late in severe COVID-19 patients and early in mild cases Patients with large vessel occlusion were younger and had higher NIHSS Hypercoagulability and inflammation in COVID-19 are related to stroke Other cause should be considered as a stroke etiology in COVID-19 patients

on behalf of Latin American Stroke rEgistry (LASE) COVID-19 Collaborators.Objectives: COVID-19 pandemic has forced important changes in health care worldwide. Stroke care networks have been affected, especially during peak periods. We assessed the impact of the pandemic and lockdowns in stroke admissions and care in Latin America. Materials and Methods: A multinational study (7 countries, 18 centers) of patients admitted during the pandemic outbreak (March-June 2020). Comparisons were made with the same period in 2019. Numbers of cases, stroke etiology and severity, acute care and hospitalization outcomes were assessed. Results: Most countries reported mild decreases in stroke admissions compared to the same period of 2019 (1187 vs. 1166, p = 0.03). Among stroke subtypes, there was a reduction in ischemic strokes (IS) admissions (78.3% vs. 73.9%, p = 0.01) compared with 2019, especially in IS with NIHSS 0À5 (50.1% vs. 44.9%, p = 0.03). A substantial increase in the proportion of stroke admissions beyond 48 h from symptoms onset From the

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Introduction: Recruitments of stroke recovery trials have been challenging. NIH stroke scale (NIHSS) has been universally collected in the acute stroke phase, but stroke recovery trials generally use Fugl-Meyer Motor Scale (FMMS) for outcome measure as well as patient selection criteria. The knowledge gap on the relationship between the two scales potentially jeopardize the accuracy of clinical trial recruitment feasibility survey that is based on NIHSS in the acute phase. We aimed to investigate the correlation between the two scales in a longitudinal stroke recovery study. Methods: This is a prospective cohort study (Prediction and Imaging biomarker of Post-stroke Motor Recovery) that enrolled patients with first-ever acute ischemic stroke with various degrees of motor impairment. NIHSS and FMMS were assessed 2-7 days after onset of stroke symptoms as well as at 90 days (± 15 days) post-stroke. Modified Rankin Scale (mRS), Stroke Impact Scale-16 (SIS-16) and Personal Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) were collected at 90 days (±15 days). Correlation analysis were conducted with Pearson Correlation coefficient. Results: 119 patients met the inclusion criteria and were included in the analysis. NIH Arm scales of 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4 correspond to FM-UE scales at 3 months of 61.1, 59.8, 58.0, 47.3 and 17.0. NIH leg scales of 1, 2, 3 and 4 correspond to FM_LE scales at 3 months of 32.4, 29.8, 27.8, 21.0 and 17.2. The correlation coefficient between of two leg scales is not as good as the two arm scales. (0.76 vs. 0.83). Similarly, mRS of 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 correspond to FMMS of 99.0, 91.6, 85.5, 51.6, 41.5, 21.6 and SIS-16 of 73.7, 69.6, 64.7, 55.1, 42.8, 25.3. Conclusions: Our data suggest that there is a strong correlation pattern between the NIH arm scale and FM-UE scale, NIH leg scale and FM-LE scale as well as mRS, FMMS, NIHSS and SIS-16. This information is potentially useful to inform the feasibility assessment for future stroke rehabilitation trials done through the NIH Stroke Trials Network.

INTRODUCCIÓN: En marzo 2020 la Organización Mundial de la Salud decretó la pandemia por covid-19. Se han informado casos de ACV relacionados con esta infección viral. OBJETIVOS: Conocer la experiencia de diferentes partes del mundo respecto al ACV y covid-19 con el fin de mejorar el reconocimiento y saber qué hacer cuando se empiecen a presentar estos pacientes en nuestro medio. MÉTODOS: Se hizo una revisión de los estudios observacionales disponibles utilizando PubMed, Scopus, así como otras fuentes de literatura gris para las publicaciones sobre ACV y covid-19. Se identificaron datos demográficos, tiempo de aparición del ACV desde el diagnóstico de covid-19. Principales hallazgos radiológicos, laboratorios y pronóstico. RESULTADOS: Se obtuvieron ocho estudios, con 43 sujetos que tuvieron ACV isquémico e infección por SARS-CoV-2. La edad promedio fue de 67,4 años, siendo en su mayoría hombres (58,1%).Un hallazgo importante fue el número de casos de ACV con oclusión de vaso grande en 22 de 31 casos reportados (71%). La mediana de NIHSS fue de 14,5 puntos. Se presentó una mortalidad del 27,5% de los sujetos con ACV El estadio más frecuente por covid-19 fue el de condición severa 58,3%. La aparición del ACV luego de la infección por SARS-CoV-2 fue de 10,6 días en promedio. En los laboratorios se identificó una elevación del fibrinógeno (92%), dímero-D (76%) y LDH (82%) respectivamente. El tratamiento recibido de forma más frecuente para el ACV fue la antiagregación, en 51%, mientras que las terapias de reperfusión se hicieron en el 30% de los casos. La mayoría de los pacientes (93%) presentaron síntomas de covid-19, solo 3 pacientes (7%) no presentaron síntomas típicos de esta enfermedad, sin embargo tuvieron alteración del estado de conciencia asociado al ACV CONCLUSIÓN: Los estados de inflamación e hipercoagulabilidad que se presentan durante la infección por SARS-CoV-2 probablemente están en relación con el desarrollo de ACV, lo cual en este caso podrá explicar el gran número de oclusiones de vaso grande. Los marcadores de inflamación generalmente están presentes. Establecer códigos protegidos de ACV es una medida a efectuar en nuestro medio.

Background: Ischemic stroke has been reported to occur in approximately 5% of COVID-19 patients, although some reports are contradictory. Proposed mechanisms of this association are hypercoagulable state, vasculitis and cardiomyopathy, together with traditional vascular risk factors. We analyzed the frequency and clinical characteristics of COVID-19 positive stroke cases during the first months of the pandemic in Latin America. Methods: A multinational study (7 countries, 18 centers) of patients admitted during the pandemic outbreak (March - June 2020). We assessed acute stroke cases associated to COVID-19 infection. Clinical characteristics, stroke etiology and severity, acute care and functional outcomes, were compared between non-COVID-19 and COVID-19 cases. Results: There were a total of 1037 stroke cases; sixty-two of them (6.0%) were diagnosed with COVID-19 infection. This group consisted of 38 men [61.3%], with a median age of 68 years [IQR 59-79 years]. From these cases, 80.6% were ischemic stroke, 16.1% hemorrhagic stroke, and 1.6% transient ischemic attack and cerebral venous thrombosis respectively. The most common etiology reported for ischemic cases was atherosclerotic large vessel occlusion (30.6% vs. 12.7% in non-COVID cases, p<0.001), and undetermined etiology for hemorrhagic stroke (55.6%). Median NIHSS for COVID-stroke patients was higher (7 IQR 2-16 vs. 5 IQR 2-11, p=0.05). Five (8.1%) patients received acute reperfusion therapy, with no differences in door-to-CT, door-to-needle and door-to-groin times, compared to non-COVID cases. Most characteristics did not differ from those of COVID-19 negative patients. Mortality was higher in COVID-stroke cases (20.9% vs. 9.6%, p<0.001). Conclusions: COVID-19 infection frequency in stroke patients in Latin America is similar to that reported in several series worldwide, with a higher frequency of atherosclerotic ischemic strokes and mortality compared to non COVID-19 strokes

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