A major new project using brain scanning could in future help identify brain tissue that can be salvaged following a stroke and prevent lasting damage. 

Facilitated by today's launch of the SINAPSE virtual brain imaging laboratory, the researchers from the Universities of Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow are hopeful the work could eventually help create a blood test paramedics could immediately carry out on stroke patients.

Funded by the Translational Medicine Research Collaboration, the study will involve stroke patients across Scotland who will be scanned three times within a month of their stroke.  

As well as stopping further damage to the brain, the study will look in greater detail at scanning methods for strokes and the chemical changes that occur in a stroke patient's brain.

Commenting on the research, Professor Joanna Wardlaw of the University of Edinburgh’s School of Molecular and Clinical Medicine described it as "the ‘holy grail’ of stroke treatment".

"For some patients, the damage caused by stroke is unfortunately permanent and irreversible. But for others, we could make a real difference if we could identify which areas of their brain are salvageable.

"SINAPSE has allowed us to share our expertise and equipment, and by working together we hope to find the solution quicker than would be possible if we worked alone," she said.
 
Dr Alison Murray, deputy director of SINAPSE and clinical senior lecturer in radiology at the University of Aberdeen, added: “As well as stroke, SINAPSE will be addressing other very important brain diseases and disorders such as Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s, schizophrenia, depression and ageing of the brain.

"It also played a key role in the recent development of a new drug for Alzheimer’s disease.”
 
SINAPSE, the Scottish Imaging Network: A Platform for Excellence, is an initiative between all of Scotland's medical schools.