James F. Meschia, M.D.

Aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) is the most deadly kind of stroke. Each year, 40,000 Americans have SAH. Case-fatality approaches 60% and more than half of those who die do so before reaching the hospital. Most commonly, SAH results from rupture of an intracranial aneurysm. Screening high-risk individuals could identify those at greatest risk and decrease the devastating effect of SAH. Aortic Aneurysm also constitutes a major public health problem with high lethality. Current estimates are that ruptured aortic aneurysm kills 13,000 Americans each year. Screening efforts have effectively lowered mortality from aortic aneurysm rupture but a high proportion of those who die did not have a diagnosis of aortic aneurysm prior to rupture.

The relationship between intracranial and aortic aneurysm has long been recognized, but poorly quantified. Recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) provide a molecular biological evidence for a shared pathophysiology. The chromosome 9p21 locus confers increased risk for both intracranial aneurysms and aortic aneurysms. These GWAS data, along with linkage data for other susceptibility loci, indicate that individuals and families harboring one type of aneurysm may be at especially increased risk of the other.

The rationale for this project is that opportunistic screening for abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) may be warranted in patients who present with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage. This study is meant to see if the yield of screening in this population is too low to justify its routine use. The investigators plan to systematically screen for AAA in all cases of aSAH presenting to MCH for treatment. If no individual out of 81 consecutively screened cases of aSAH has evidence of AAA, then the investigators can have strong confidence that there is a less than 5% chance of finding an AAA in the patient population.

The aim of this study is to create a state-wide biorepository and resource center for cerebrovascular diseases in Florida. The Center will collect and store detailed phenotypic information, DNA, and other biofluids on affected subjects with diverse cerebrovascular conditions, including, but not limited to, ischemic stroke, transient ischemic attack (TIA), intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH), vascular dementia (VAD), anoxic brain injury, unruptured intracranial aneurysm (UIA), cavernous malformation, arteriovenous malformations (AVM), carotid and vertebral arterial dissections, symptomatic and asymptomatic cervical carotid artery atherosclerotic stenosis, non-aneurysmal perimesencephalic subarachnoid hemorrhage (naSAH), cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT), moyamoya disease, fibrosmuscular dysplasia (FMD), non-traumatic, angiography-negative subarachnoid hemorrhage, leukoaraiosis, arteriovenous fistula, reversible cerebral vasoconstriction syndrome (RCVS), and CADASIL.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate plasma biomarkers of vascular function and inflammation in patients with newly-diagnosed Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) and pre-existing imaging evidence of Cerebral Small Vessel Disease (CSVD).

The purpose of this research study is to examine how certain genes and lifetime and ongoing stress may impact rehabilitation and recovery after stroke.

The aim of this study is to deeply phenotype adult patients and healthy volunteers with varying degrees of sporadic CNS small vessel disease (deep white matter Fazekas scores of 0 to 3). This would be a stage 1 phenotyping exercise of CNS small vessel disease.