Latest advances and research in stroke treatment 2007.

The 32nd International Stroke Conference, held February 7-9, 2007, in San Francisco, California, U.S.A., was an excellent forum to bring together advances in stroke treatment. Very challenging new steps in the process of developing drugs for stroke from basic science to clinical trials, such as testing the in vitro efficacy in human tissue of a candidate drug, or its in vivo PET distribution in ischemic brain, were proposed. This report focuses on new therapeutic stroke targets addressed in the meeting, together with the trends in neurovascular research presented at the oral and poster sessions. Some of the results obtained by researchers in several stroke fields such as thrombolysis, new drugs or devices and nonpharmacological approaches for stroke treatment tested in humans will also be covered. From the basic research, promising strategies found in new drugs and targets, and endothelial progenitor cells, cellular therapies and angiogenesis will be discussed. Also covered in this review are a selection of advances introduced in secondary prevention and in cerebral hemorrhage.