CRESCENDO - CiRculating mEdiators of Stroke reCurrENce anD aetiOlogies

Patients who suffered ischaemic stroke are at high risk for a recurrent cerebrovascular event. Despite all efforts in secondary prevention, stroke is still among the top causes for invalidity and death. Traditionally, risks for stroke recurrence are thought to be based on categorized stroke aetiologies and the amount of vascular risk factors. This concept however does not sufficiently reflect the complex pathophysiology and thus comes along with substantial issues. Rather, it appears probable that circulating mediators related to the extent of acute and chronic brain damage in concert with aetiological mechanisms and underlying comorbidities influence the risk for recurrent cerebrovascular events. With the CiRculating mEdiators of Stroke reCurrENce anD aetiOlogies (CRESCENDO) consortium, we aim to address this hypothesis. CRESCENDO will utilize existing biosample collections from a total of over 5,000 thoroughly evaluated patients at the three study sites in Hannover, Seville and Basel/Zrich. We on the one hand will investigate well-characterized biomarkers of cerebral damage, inflammation, immunothrombosis and stress in a hypothesis-driven approach and on the other hand explore predictive targets via a data-driven approach applying proteomics. The objective of this collaboration is to initiate a paradigm shift towards an integrated pathophysiology-based evaluation of individual cerebrovascular risks and to identify innovative approaches for secondary stroke prevention.