The following telestroke guidelines were developed to assist practitioners in providing assessment, diagnosis, management, and/or remote consultative support to patients exhibiting symptoms and signs consistent with an acute stroke syndrome, using telemedicine communication technologies. Although telestroke practices may include the more broad utilization of telemedicine across the entire continuum of stroke care, with some even consulting on all neurologic emergencies, this document focuses on the acute phase of stroke, including both pre-and in-hospital encounters for cerebrovascular neurological emergencies. These guidelines describe a network of audiovisual communication and computer systems for delivery of telestroke clinical services and include operations, management, administration, and economic recommendations. These interactive encounters link patients with acute ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke syndromes with acute care facilities with remote and on-site healthcare practitioners providing access to expertise, enhancing clinical practice, and improving quality outcomes and metrics. These guidelines apply specifically to telestroke services and they do not prescribe or recommend overall clinical protocols for stroke patient care. Rather, the focus is on the unique aspects of delivering collaborative bedside and remote care through the telestroke model.

Background: Pseudoxanthoma elasticum (PXE) is an heritable connective tissue disorder with clinical manifestations of the ocular, dermal, and cardiovascular system. The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence of symptomatic intracranial aneurysms (IAs) and ischaemic stroke (IS) in PXE. Methods: The records of 100 patients with PXE were retrieved. All patients were contacted and data on complications were collected. The literature was reviewed regarding PXE, ISs, and IAs. Results: No patient with PXE had a symptomatic IA as presenting symptom. One patient presented with an IS. During follow-up of 94 of the 100 patients (mean follow-up 17.1 years, range 1–49 years), none presented a symptomatic IA (3,168 retrospective patient observation years and 1,602 prospective patient observation years). Upper gastrointestinal haemorrhage during follow-up occurred in 17 patients, in 1 patient during aspirin use. One patient has IS as presenting symptom and a recurrence during follow-up, and 7 patients had IS during follow-up. All were caused by small-vessel disease. The relative risk of IS in PXE under 65 years compared with the general population was 3.6 (95% confidence interval 3.3–4.0). Conclusions: On the basis of the currently available data, an association between symptomatic IAs and PXE is unlikely. However, the incidence of IS, due to small-vessel disease, was increased. Antiplatelet therapy in patients with PXE may lead to a high incidence of upper gastrointestinal haemorrhages.

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In 4–66% of young stroke patients in reported series no cause is found. To study the influence of diagnostic criteria on the eventual diagnosis of the ischemic stroke we reviewed retrospectively the results of 71 patients with an ischemic stroke, all aged 20–45 years. In 23 of the 71 patients a certain cause was found: atherosclerosis (11 patients), cardiac embolism (6), arterial dissection (3) trauma (2) and vasculitis (1). Subsequently, we used the diagnostic criteria of other investigators and applied these to our patient group. The found percentages of explained ischemic stroke varied substantially from 14 to 56%, depending on the criteria used. Atherosclerosis ranged from 16 to 27%, cardiac causes from 14 to 20%, different vasculopathies from 14 to 17% and metabolic/hematologic causes from 0 to 22%. The discrepancies about causes of stroke in the young as found in the literature may to a large extent be the consequence of varying criteria sets. It is possible that more rigorous criteria lead to a larger proportion of unexplained strokes.