WVXU: UC researchers launch stroke recovery study

University of Cincinnati researchers are leading a new nationwide stroke recovery study, hoping to identify biomarkers to predict which patients will recover upper arm function.

The VERIFY study is led by Pooja Khatri, MD, professor of neurology and director of the vascular neurology division in the UC College of Medicine’s Department of Neurology and Rehabilitation Sciences; co-director of the UC Gardner Neuroscience Institute Stroke Center of Excellence and the NIH StrokeNet National Coordinating Center housed at UC and a UC Health physician, and Achala Vagal, MD, vice chair of research and professor of radiology in UC’s College of Medicine and a UC Health neuroradiologist.

The study will use transcranial stimulation (TMS) and MRI, with Vagal leading the procedures and analysis of MRI imaging. Being able to predict recovery can lead to more specific trials and more informed patient care, the researchers said.

“Scientifically, for future trials and future studies, this study will be very informative," Vagal told WVXU. "But also, at a patient level in the future, it will really help to find out which patient needs which kind of therapy and how much of it is really going to help them recover.”

Read and listen to the WVXU report.

Read more about the study.

Featured photo at top of Dr. Khatri, left, and Dr. Vagal. Photo/Ravenna Rutledge/University of Cincinnati.