Improving our understanding of long term memory and thinking problems after stroke

Rates, Risks and Routes to Reduce Vascular Dementia (R4VaD) (Joint funding with Stroke Association and Alzheimer's Society for Advancing Care and Treatment of Vascular Dementia (ACT-VAD))

Professor Joanna Wardlaw from the University of Edinburgh is studying vascular dementia, where the brain’s blood supply is decreased. Vascular dementia can develop after a stroke. In this project jointly funded by the BHF, the Stroke Association and Alzheimer’s Society, Professor Wardlaw will bring together UK research experts to study vascular dementia. The team will collect information from hospital records and perform thinking and memory tests on 2000 people after they have had a stroke. They will also collect biological samples (like blood) and perform scans that will help to identify chemicals that could act as markers for vascular dementia. The team will compare results from those who develop memory and thinking problems with those who don’t, using the results to try to work out what causes vascular dementia and how to predict those at risk of developing the condition. This research will help to improve how doctors detect the thinking and memory problems that can develop after a stroke, and give the best care to people with vascular dementia. It will help policy makers to plan future health services.