Cerebrovascular Disease/Stroke Division

The Cerebrovascular Diseases/Stroke Division works within the UC Comprehensive Stroke Center through the UC Gardner Neuroscience Institute. Our team of faculty physicians are internationally renowned specialists who play a leading role in providing acute stroke care and conducting basic and clinical research.

Through the UC Stroke Team and the surgical/interventional neurovascular program, UC specialists offer a comprehensive approach for stroke prevention and the treatment of transient ischemic attack (TIA), ischemic stroke, intracerebral hemorrhage, intracranial aneurysm, arteriovenous malformation and other cerebrovascular conditions.

All physician members of the division attend on the neurology service at University of Cincinnati Medical Center and take acute stroke call as part of the UC Stroke Team.

Academic Overview

Faculty members provide didactic lectures for all levels of trainees. Medical students, residents, and fellows have ample opportunities to participate in the care of patients with cerebrovascular disease during inpatient neurology rotations and in the outpatient clinic.

A dedicated rotation with the UC Stroke Team, providing acute stroke care throughout the Greater Cincinnati area, with a focus upon reperfusion therapy for ischemic stroke, is available to medical students and residents.

Areas of Expertise

The division offers broad expertise in cerebrovascular diseases, including clinical care and research. Our expertise includes:

• Transient ischemic attack (TIA)
• Ischemic stroke
• Intracerebral hemorrhage
• Intracranial aneurysm
• Arteriovenous malformation
• Acute treatment of stroke
• Prevention of stroke strategies
• Stroke in the Young
• Stroke in Women
• Carotid and Intracranial Stenosis
• Genetics of Stroke
• Health Disparities in Stroke Epidemiology

Research Activity

Our cerebrovascular research program has received funding from the National Institute of Neurologic Diseases and Stroke (NINDS) since the mid-1980s, with extensive federal funding for both basic and clinical research. Our program was the first to test and explore the use of the tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), the only current approved medical therapy for acute ischemic stroke.

Examples of other continued leadership include:

• We were recently awarded a large grant from the NIH/NINDS to evaluate new treatment combinations for acute stroke patients.Called the MOST study, this trial will be performed in multiple centers throughout the US.
• We are the National Coordinating Center for the new NIH/NINDS-funded StrokeNet, a network of 25 participating centers throughout the United States which will participate in coordinated stroke research.
• We lead several NIH-funded interventional studies of recovery following stroke. Our multidisciplinary research program spans the entire gamut of stroke, from population-based studies of environmental and genetic causes of stroke, to acute medical and interventional treatments for stroke, to the very latest and most exciting research in recovery after stroke.

Our research interests include:

• Acute ischemic stroke treatment: Joseph Broderick, MD; Pooja Khatri, MD;
• Intracerebral hemorrhage: Daniel Woo, MD; Joseph Broderick, MD; Matthew Flaherty, MD; Stacie Demel, MD, PhD
• Secondary stroke prevention: Matthew Flaherty, MD
• Stroke rehabilitation: Brett Kissela, MD; Oluwole Awosika, MD
• Cerebrovascular genetics: Daniel Woo, MD; Stacie Demel, DO, PhD
• Stroke epidemiology: Brett Kissela, MD; Daniel Woo, MD; Matthew Flaherty, MD; Joseph Broderick MD; Robert Stanton, MD
• Neuro-interventional: Aaron Grossman MD PhD; Peyman Shirani, MD
• Neuro-imaging: Daniel Woo MD; Pooja Khatri MD; Achala Vagal, MD