ISC 2025 | Wrap-up of ISC 2025 with the Chair and Vice Chair

Lauren Sansing

We had continued to break records in attendance at ISC, both in person and some virtual attendees. And I think the numbers of abstracts and the quality of science just continues to excite, exhilarate, and really create a buzz around the conference. And it’s been a fantastic week so far and we are heading into late-breaking abstracts in just a couple of minutes where we’ll have nine clinical trials presented so it’s quite amazing.

Bijoy Menon

Some of the science has been exciting. On the first day we came to know where and how we should offer thrombectomy in our patients. So that was very interesting. It has informed the field about what we should be doing in patients with distal occlusions with regards to thrombectomy. On the second day, we found that transcranial direct current stimulation is really feasible. And although we do need more trials to actually show more evidence. The fact that it is safe and feasible was very encouraging. We came to know about blood pressure modulation and how we treat ischemic strokes differently from bleeds in the brain. And so those are practice informing. And then today, there might be new ground broken in terms of what we could do with intra-arterial lytics in people with thrombectomy, and then pushing the boundaries in terms of how we treat patients with clot busters or thrombolytic agents in extended time windows. So exciting signs at the ISC.

Lauren Sansing

And just to go into a little bit more detail, the three trials that were presented on Wednesday sort of built on this momentum that we have in the field for thrombectomy for patients with intracranial occlusions and acute ischemic stroke. So we know overwhelmingly that when those occlusions are proximal, that patients benefit from thrombectomy. But the three trials showed us that when the clots are a little bit more distal in those medium or non-dominant or more distal vessels, that there is no benefit of thrombectomy. And in particular, when the clots are more distal, that there’s a signal towards harm. So it’s sort of delineated the limits of where, at least with our current technology and our current selection criteria that yes proximal clots absolutely but distal maybe be a little bit more conservative and focus on medical management and the potential of neuroprotectants and other therapies. So that I think has real implications for how we’re treating acute stroke patients and who we’re taking for thrombectomy.

Bijoy Menon

That’s right.

This transcript is AI-generated. While we strive for accuracy, please verify this copy with the video.