As COVID-19 continues to ravage health systems across the world we are still asking ourselves what are the risks for stroke patients that have contracted COVID-19. Carmen Lahiff-Jenkins, Managing Editor of the International Journal of Stroke, spoke to Dr James Siegler from Cooper Neurologic Institute, Cooper University Hospital, Camden, New Jersey in the USA about the retrospective observational cohort of consecutive adults evaluated in the emergency department and/or admitted with coronavirus disease 2019, across 31 hospitals in four countries. Of the 14,483 patients with laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2, 172 were diagnosed with an acute cerebrovascular event recorded from the 1st of Feb until the 16th of June 2020.

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Idarucizumab is a monoclonal antibody fragment with high affinity for dabigatran reversing its anticoagulant effects within minutes. Patients with acute ischemic stroke on dabigatran treatment may become eligible for thrombolysis with rt-PA. In patients on dabigatran with intracerebral hemorrhage idarucizumab could prevent lesion growth. Carmen Lahiff-Jenkins, Managing Editor of the International Journal of Stroke spoke to Dr Pawel Kermer from Krankenhaus Sanderbusch; Neurology, Sande Germany.

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Mobile stroke units, otherwise known as MSUs have recently been introduced in the care of patients suspected of having an acute stroke, leading to shortening in the time to thrombolytics, but how does the clinical effectiveness in terms of functional outcome and survival among patients treated in MSU and/or conventional care compare?

Carmen Lahiff-Jenkins; Managing Editor of the International Journal of Stroke spoke to the very impressive Dr Nida Fatima from the Department of Neurosurgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, USA who was the corresponding author for the Mobile Stroke Unit versus Standard Medical Care in the Management of patients with Acute Stroke: a systematic review and meta-analysis.