Newsletter III – October 2016

Good autumn start from the SECRETO Coordinating Center, and welcome to the new study sites that are about to begin subject recruitment: Bergen, Athens, Brescia, Reggio Emilia, Madrid, Nijmegen, Gothenburg, and Greifswald.

Recruitment status

Since the latest newsletter last spring, the recruitment of patients (n=125) and control subjects (n=75) has progressed favorably.

Recruitment as of September 2016
Cumulative recruitment as of September 2016

Protocol paper

The underlying protocol manuscript is in the stage of finalization and it will be submitted to the European Stroke Journal by the end of October. Since this is an investigator-driven project—the implementation of which we all are responsible—we propose that all those involved in the planning of the study protocol, core lab leaders, and PIs from study sites that now are recruiting or have readiness to start recruiting in the near future will qualify for authorship in the protocol manuscript (unless there are restrictions by the journal—in which case all will be acknowledged).

Poster presentation and future monitoring

Thanks to all investigators for updating the data and checking the missing entries in the online database! We are able to use that data in preparing the attached poster to the World Stroke Conference on 26-29 October in Hyderabad, India. We hope to meet you there!

From now on, we will perform regular monitoring of data integrity and further interim analyses will be performed from time to time, so it is crucial to keep the database always as up-to-date as possible.

Final call to new study centers

Our target is to have 600 patients and controls enrolled by the end of 2018. With 15 active study centers, that translates to about 1.2 patients per month plus their controls. A few more interested centers may still join the study to facilitate timely completion of the project—provided that paperwork to obtain ethics approval, collaboration with cardiologists etc. can be rapidly organized.

A modest compensation to cover costs related to e.g. blood sample processing, temporary storage, and study visits can be granted. Please contact the Coordinating Center for further details.

Let’s keep the wheels running!