Background: Several reports refer to differences in stroke between females and males, namely in incidence and clinical outcome, but also in response to treatments. Driven by a recent analysis of the MR CLEAN trial, which showed a higher benefit from acute stroke endovascular treatment (EVT) in males, we intended to determine if clinical outcomes after EVT differ between sexes, in a real-world setting. Methods: We analyzed 145 consecutive patients submitted to EVT for anterior circulation large-vessel occlusion, between January 2015 and September 2016, and compared the outcomes between sexes. Results: Our population was represented by 81 (55.9%) females, with similar baseline characteristics (pre-stroke disability, baseline NIHSS, and ASPECTS), rate of previous intravenous thrombolysis, time from onset to recanalization, and rate of revascularization; with the exception that women were on average 4 years older and had more hypertension, and men in turn had more tandem occlusions and atherosclerotic etiology (all p < 0.05). Even after adjusting for these statistically significant variables and for intravenous thrombolysis (as some studies advocate a different response to this treatment between sexes), there were no differences in intracranial hemorrhage, functional independence (mRS ≤2 in 60.9% males vs. 66.7% in females, p = 0.48; adjusted p = 0.36), or mortality at 3 months. Conclusion: In a real-world setting, we found no sex differences in clinical and safety outcomes after acute stroke EVT. Our results support the idea that women are equally likely to achieve good outcomes as men after acute stroke EVT.

We investigate the effects of a gravitational wave background on the coherence degradation induced by the Unruh effect of a uniformly accelerated single-qubit and quantum interferometric circuit. In both systems, we use the formalism of the evolution of the density matrix of the detector-field system, where after the interaction the field degrees of freedom are traced out to obtain the reduced density matrix of the detector. In this background, we calculate the quantum coherence and interferometric visibility in the long-wavelength regime and large interaction time. Our results indicate that the gravitational wave transfers energy to the internal states of the detector, causing, together with the Unruh effect, changes in them, amplifying the coherence degradation of the system. This amplification occurs when the polarization modes of the gravitational wave are in resonance and have modulated amplitudes. For the case of a short-wavelength, the detector does not respond to the gravitational wave because its oscillation is so fast that the detector does not have time to respond within the system timescale. Therefore, it is possible to detect the signature of gravitational waves in the coherence degradation induced by the Unruh effect within the regimes studied here.

Ischemic stroke is a leading cause of death worldwide, mainly in western countries. So far, approved therapies rely on reperfusion of the affected brain area, by intravenous thrombolysis or mechanical thrombectomy. The last approach constitutes a breakthrough in the field, by extending the therapeutic window to 16–24 h after stroke onset and reducing stroke mortality. The combination of pharmacological brain-protective strategies with reperfusion is the future of stroke therapy, aiming to reduce brain cell death and decrease patients’ disabilities. Recently, a brain-protective drug—nerinetide—reduced brain infarct and stroke mortality, and improved patients’ functional outcomes in clinical trials. The success of new therapies relies on bringing preclinical studies and clinical practice close together, by including a functional outcome assessment similar to clinical reality. In this review, we focused on recent upgrades of in vitro and in vivo stroke models for more accurate and effective evaluation of therapeutic strategies: from spheroids to organoids, in vitro models that include all brain cell types and allow high throughput drug screening, to advancements in in vivo preclinical mouse stroke models to mimic the clinical reality in surgical procedures, postsurgical care, and functional assessment.