Database for Stroke in Infants and Children: the International Pediatric Stroke Study

The International Pediatric Stroke Study (IPSS) was established in 2003 as a multi-center, multi-national clinical research registry. Over the years, it has grown to become a highly successful study vehicle for pediatric stroke research across over 100 institutions worldwide. Today, The IPSS continues to serve as the global clinical data and imaging core for multi-disciplinary pediatric experts who perform international collaborative research to better understand, prevent, and improve outcomes in pediatric stroke. The robust dataset and cohesive network enable high caliber and ground-breaking research in the field. Participating sites enroll neonates or children who have had an ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke, or may be at high risk of having a stroke. Participants have their medical and research records reviewed for information about their stroke and abstracted into a secure electronic database called REDCap, which is hosted at SickKids in Toronto Canada. The IPSS also provides an attractive imaging platform (through the Stroke Imaging Lab for Children, SILC, housed at SickKids) for sites to share clinically acquired brain images that will complement the clinical dataset. The clinical and imaging datasets will improve our understanding of the processes underlying plasticity and recovery in childhood stroke.

OBJECTIVES: This is the first multi-center, multi-national study of children with stroke. It seeks to build a network of investigators and high-quality disease dataset to enable population-based studies, natural history studies, and clinical trials to improve the care of children with stroke. STUDY POPULATION: Infants and children with ischemic stroke (arterial ischemic stroke and cerebral sinovenous thrombosis), hemorrhagic stroke or those at high risk (e.g. arteriopathies like moyamoya). DESIGN: This study includes a data collection component and collaborative process. Our network of over 150 investigators prospectively collect data on neonates or children with a diagnosis of stroke made after January 2003. Data on stroke diagnosis, etiology, treatment and outcomes are collected and entered into a secure web system, REDCap. Neuro-imaging data from the index event and a series of follow-up time points are captured and stored in the SILC-IPSS data repository. OUTCOME MEASURES: This study will quantify outcome event rates (initial stroke characteristics, recurrent stroke, mortality, neurologic deficits), which can be used in designing future intervention studies and determining sample sizes. Analysis will be primarily descriptive. Participating investigators submit investigator-initiated research proposals or grants with a specific focus, leveraging the clinical and imaging dataset.