News archive

Melinda Roaldsen held the opening presentation at 'Closing the Gaps in Stroke Care' event

The European Parliament event “Closing the Gaps in Stroke Care: A Call to Action for Europe” took place in Brussels Oct. 14. The event was hosted by Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Billy Kelleher (Ireland) and MEP Romana Jerković (Croatia), Stroke Alliance for Europe (SAFE) and the European Stroke Organisation (ESO). The event highlighted the critical need to act now and embed stroke as a key pillar into the upcoming EU Cardiovascular Health Plan and broader brain health strategies, and to use the Stroke Action Plan for Europe (SAP-E) as the framework for this. 

Member of BrainCirc and SAP-E Chief Operations Officer Melinda Roaldsen took part with a presentation with the title "Patient journey across the care pathway & call to action for EU and national decision makers". Starting with her own experience as a stroke patient, she went on to urge every EU country to implement national stroke action plans. 

- SAP-E provides a practical roadmap to get there with measurable targets, said Roaldsen. National stroke action plans should encompass the whole chain of care that defines minimum standards in primary prevention, organisation of acute stroke services, management of acute care, secondary prevention, rehabilitation and life after stroke. The Stroke Services Tracker available from SAP-E can provide the necessary data that will help countries highlight their health inequality gaps.

Henrik Lykke Joakimsen wins the Regional Researcher Grand Prix 2025 

The Researcher Grand Prix is a national competition in research communication for PhD students, arranged by the Norwegian Research Council as a part of the annual 'Forskningsdagene'. The purpose of the competition is to inspire to research communication and dissemination and give young researhcers an opportunity to present excellent research. It is also aimed at giving the audience new insight in exciting on-going research projects.  

The regional Researcher Grand Prix 2025 was arranged at UiT in Tromsø on Sept 18th. Eight PhD students had four minutes each to present their projects. The winner was selected by a combination of votes form the audience and from a professional jury of three members; one from academia, one from the perfoming arts, and one from media. Henrik Lykke Joakimsen won with his presentation 'Can use of AI improve spinal surgery?'

As winner at the regional level, Henrik was one of ten finalists who took part in the national finale of the Researcher Grand Prix 2025 in Oslo on Sept. 25th. His presentation was very well received by the professional jury and the audience.

Congratulations, Henrik, we are really proud of you!

Three invited oral presentations and one poster presentation from BrainCirc at the XXIII Nordic Stroke Society Congress

The conference took place in Tartu, Estonia on Sept 15-17, 2025. A total of 239 stroke researchers and clinicians from 14 countries participated at the conference.

Agnethe Eltoft was invited to give a talk with the title 'Enhancing Stroke Care with AI: From Diagnosis to Treatment'. In her presentation, Agnethe gave an overview of latest knowledge and possible future directions of this field. 

In a presentation with the title 'Improving Acute Stroke Care in Sparsely Populated Regions: How to Fit into the Treatment Time Window? ', Ellisiv Mathiesen talked about the challenges of providing  equal, adequte and timely access to acute stroke care in rural and sparsely populated regions.

Melinda Roaldsen talked about the upcoming update of the Stroke Action Plan for Europe (SAP-E) with a special focus on Advocacy and Life After Stroke.

Susanne Ingebrigtsen had a poster presentation on prehospital diagnosis and thrombolysis of acute ischemic stroke using a remotely controlled CT scanner and tele-communication between local paramedics and nurses at a disctrict medical center. The study showed that pre-hospital thrombolysis was feasible, resulted in reduced use of rotor wing transport and showed a trend towards increased increased thrombolysis rate and shorter onset-to-treatment time. 

Elise Kristensen presented her results on the efficacy and safety of thrombolysis in patients with mild stroke at the European Stroke Organisation Conference in Helsinki May 21-23. 

In her study, Elise evaluated the effectiveness and safety of intravenous thrombolysis (IVT) in mild acute ischemic stroke (NIHSS score ≤5). A total of 1736 individuals who received IVT were paired by preopensity-score matching with 1736 controls  who did not receive IVT. At 90 days follow-up, 68.4% of IVT-treated patients and 61.2% of controls had excellent functional outcome (mRS 0-1; OR 1.39, 95% CI 1.20-1.60, p<0.001). IVT was associated with a higher probability of achieving mRS scores 0-2 (OR 1.57, 95% CI 1.29-1.91, p<0.001) and overall lower mRS scores (OR 1.41, 95% CI 1.25-1.59, p<0.001). No significant differences in mortality were observed. In the IVT group, sICH occurred in 3.7% within 24 hours after treatment.

In conclusion, IVT was associated with favorable functional outcomes at 90 days in patients with mild acute ischemic stroke.

Elise's talk was presented in the session "Intravenous Thrombolysis in Acute Ischemic Stroke: Expanding Indications and Evidence". A report from the session by dr. Christian Boehme can be found at the ESOC 2025 webpage.

The results of the STATICH trial was presented at ESOC 2025. 

The STATICH (Study of Antithrombotic Treatment after Intracerebral Haemorrhage) trial was an investigator-led, randomised, open, blinded end-point (PROBE) clinical trial of antithrombotic treatment for prevention of ischaemic events after intracerebral haemorrhage (sICH). 

The purpose of the trial was to assess the effects of long-term antithrombotic  treatment on the risk of recurrent spontaneous symptomatic ICH after sICH. The primary outcome was recurrent spontaneous ICH within 2 years. 

The investigators aimed to include 500 patients from 25 centers in Scandinavia from August 2018 through December 2022.   The trial was stopped before the target number was reached due to slow recruitment. 

Dr. Kristin Tveitan Larsen and dr. Helle Eilertsen presented the results at ESOC.

- Many physicians are reluctant to initiate antithrombotic drugs after an ICH, and more knowledge on this clinical equipoise is important. Unfortunately, recruitment to the trial was slow with a total of 134 included participants. The power was too low to draw any firm conclusions, says associate professor Maria Carlsson, who was member of the STATICH Steering Committee and the MRI Review Committee. However, collaboration with similar trials on an individual participant data meta-analysis is planned, which may contribute to increased knowledge on this important question, 

The trial was initiated by the late Prof. Eivind Berge, who was affiliated with UiT and a member of the Brain and Circulation Group. After Eivind's death in 2020, the trial was co-ordinated by Prof. Torgeir Bruun Wyller at Oslo University Hospital in collaboration with Prof. Ole Morten Rønning at Akershus University Hospital.  

ESOC 2025

Melinda Roaldsen's presentation titled "The sky is the limit - the power of neuroplasticity" opened the scientific session on "Neuroplasticity as the (old) new frontier in stroke rehabilitation" at ESOC 2025.

She started by presenting a call for action on structured rehabilitation immediately after stroke and continuously, depending on need, in accordance with a published WHO report and recent Cochrane review, using her lived experience as a good example.

The results of a study on temporal trends in reperfusion treatment in ischemic stroke patients in Norway was presented by Kevin Elangwe at ESOC 2025. 

A total of 45,686 patients with first-ever acute ischemic stroke registered in the Norwegian Stroke Registry from 2014 to 2022 were included in the study. The use of reperfusion therapy, thrombolyis and/or thrombectomy, increased significantly over time, concurrent with significant improvements in functional outcome and lower mortality rate. Patients aged ≥ 80 years showed improvement in functional outcome and reduced mortality rate, while no significant time trends were observed in patients below 80.

An article based on the results of the study has been published in the European Stroke Journal. 

Melinda Roaldsen has been appointed as Ambassador of the recently launched Global Stroke Action Coalition.

The Global Stroke Action Coalition (GSAC) is a global advocacy movement, driving urgent policy commitment, investment and action on stroke prevention, treatment and continuing care. It was convened and officially launched  by the World Stroke Organization (WSO) on April 9, 2025.

Melinda, who is a Chief Executive Officer of the Stroke Action Plan for Europe (SAP-E), represents the European Stroke Organisation in the coalition. In her presentation at the launch webinar, Melinda talked about her own experience as a stroke survivor and the need for increased investments in stroke prevention.

Melinda was also an invited speaker at the WSO-hosted GSAC side event, Overlooked and Underfunded: Turning the Tide on the Global Stroke Crisis, held on May 19 at the WHO's 78th World Health Assembly in Geneva on May 19. 

Former WSO President Bo Norrving, Melinda Roaldsen and former BBC journalist Claire Doole at the GSAC event in Geneva. Photo: WSO

The side event also marked the official launch of the "Every minute counts" advocacy campaign, a call to action for Ministries of Health to become Stroke Champions, and for civil society to sign and circulate the Coalition’s online Letter of Support. The campaign aims to put stroke at the forefront of national and global health strategies. We urge everbody to sign the letter of support ahead of the upcoming United Nations High-Level Meeting on Noncommunicable Diseases (NCDs) in September.

'The quality of research is internationally excellent', says international expert evaluation panel 

On April 8, the Research Council of Norway launched the report from the evaluation of medicine and health sciences in Norway (EVALMEDHELSE). The main goal of the evaluation was to assess the quality of Norwegian medical and health science research, the framework conditions for the research, and how relevant the research is to key societal areas. International experts evaluated research institutions, departments and research groups with regards to organization, scientific and public dissemination, and contributions to their specific research fields. The evaluation process started in 2023 and was based on self-reports as well as available public information about the institutions, departments and research groups, covering the period 2012-2022.

The research of the Brain and Circulation Research Group received high scores on stroke research quality, from 4 to 5, where 5 was the highest grade. The report stated that "The research group has produced internationally excellent research with an outstanding role of the research group in the research process".  

- We are very pleased with the favorable evaluation of the research quality of our group, says research group leader Ellisiv Mathiesen. This is inspiring and encouraging for our continued work and shows that we are on the right track. We also appreciate that the research group's societal contribution is judged as considerable. However, there is also room for improvement.  Although the organisational environment was judged as "adequate for supporting the production of excellent research", the expert panel also pointed to the high percentage of temporary academic positions within the research group as a organizational weakness and recommends increased employment of researchers in full-time tenured academic positions, which would improve the effectiveness of scientific projects. We have read the recommendations from the evaluation panel with interest and look forward to discussing them both within our group and at the department and faculty level.   

The evaluation report can be read here.

Four medical students from our research group presented the results of their research at the Conference of the Norwegian Neurological Society (Nevrodagene). 

Abstracts from Elise Kristensen, Kevin Elangwe, Levi Simonsen Sæbøe and Rasmus Kvamme were all selected for oral presentations at Nevrodagene, which took place in Oslo on March 11-13, 2025. 

Elise, who is a student at the Medical Student Research Programme, presented an abstract with the title Effekt og sikkerhet av trombolyse ved milde hjerneinfarkt, based on data from the Norwegian Stroke Registry. In her research project, which is based on data from the Norwegian Stroke Registry (NSR), Elise found that thrombolysis was effective and safe in patients with mild strokes, defined as an NIHSS (National Institutes of Stroke Scale) score of 0-5.

In his master thesis, Levi Simonsen Sæbøe, studied the prevalence and risk factors of silent brain infarcts (SBI) in a general population, defined as presence of cortical brain infarcts and lacunes on MRI in participants without symptomatic stroke prior to the MRI examination. The study included 1842 participants of the Tromsø Study aged 40-84 years. SBI was a common finding, with a prevalence of 12%. Higher age, male sex, hypertension, diabetes and intracranial arterial stenosis were associated with presence of SBI.

Rasmus Kvamme presented the results of his master thesis, titled Intravenøs trombolyse for iskemiske slagpasienter med sen presentasjon eller symptomer ved oppvåkning: En nasjonal registerstudie, where he studied the characteristics and outcomes of patients treated with intravenous thrombolysis for ischemic stroke in the extended time window (within 4.5-9 hours and symptom onset or wake-up stroke). Patients presenting in the extended time window had milder strokes, a higher prevalence of atrial fibrillation and lower prevalence of diabetes compared to patients presenting within 4.5 hours. Thrombolysis was significantly associated with improved functional outcomes at three months. The risk of symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage was similar to the risk patients receiving thrombolysis within 4.5 hours of symptom onset.

Kevin Elangwe's abstract had the title Tidstrender i akutt iskemisk slag behandling, funksjonsutfall og dødelighet i Norge fra 2014 til 2021. The work is part of his Medical Student Research Programme project at UiT.

In his study Tidstrender i akutt iskemisk slag behandling, funksjonsutfall og dødelighet i Norge fra 2014 til 2021, Kevin Elangwe analyzed the temporal trends in reperfusion treatment, functional outcomes and mortality among 45,686 patients with first-ever acute ischemic stroke registered in the Norwegian Stroke Registry from 2014 to 2021. The use of reperfusion therapy, thrombolyis and/or thrombectomy, increased significantly over time, concurrent      with significant improvements in functional outcome and lower mortality rate. Patients aged ≥ 80 years showed improvement in functional outcome and reduced mortality rate, while no significant time trends were observed in patients below 80.

Kevin's first article, which is based on these results, was accepted for publication on the day of the presentation and is now available in the European Stroke Journal. 

Congratulation to all four for excellent presentations!

The research project Stroke in Northern Norway – better prevention and treatment, led by Prof. Tor Ingebrigtsen receives funding of 20 million NOK from the Northern Norway Regional Health Authority’s Research Program for Clinical Trials (KlinReg).

The project is based on regional collaboration between the hospitals in Northern Norway Health Region and UiT. It consist of four work packages (WP 1-4) covering ischemic stroke, intracerebral hemorrhage and subarachnoid hemorrhage, with the overarching goal of developing knowledge that can improve prevention and treatment of stroke. The work pacages are led by the assoc. professors Agnethe Eltoft (UiT/UNN), Jørgen Isaksen (UiT/UNN) and Maria Carlsson (Nordland Hospital Trust/UiT).

The main goals of the four work packages are to study whether

1. pro-BNP stratified screening with continuous ECG-monitoring by a a novel patch monitor (ECG24/7) for asymptomatic atrial fibrillation and subsequent anticoagulant treatment leads to reduced incidence of ischemic stroke and cardiovascular deathin a general population (WP 1)
2. remotely controlled CT examinations for routine prehospital thrombolysis at a District Medical Center (DMC) results in earlier treatment with thrombolysis and increased survival in patients with ischemic stroke compared to transportation to a local hospital for diagnostics and treatment (WP 2)
3. implementation of a structured «bundle of care» treatment in Northern Norway improves outcome in patients with intracerebral hemorrhage compared to routine treatment (WP 3)
4. the age-specific prevalence rates and natural history of non-ruptured intracranial aneurysms (WP 4)

The project covers clinical trials conducted at the hospitals in the region. Work package 2 will include patients treated for ischemic stroke at DMCs in Brønnøysund and Finnsnes. The screening for atrial fibrillation in work package 1 will be based on the 8th round of the population-based Tromsø Study.

Linn Steffensen presented the Decentralized pre-hospital thrombolysis project at a meeting with visitors from the Mayo Clinic.  

The delegation from USA came to Tromsø to learn more about the possibilities for collaboration within health-related innovation with researchers in the region. How to organize and deliver high quality emergency medicine services in an Arctic climate with long distances and scaresly populated areas was the main topic of the meeting.  The inititative to the meeting came from Innovation Norway and took place at the University Hospital of North Norway. 

Two abstracts from the Brain and Circulation Research Group are among five abstracts that are nominated to the Helge Nornes’ Best Scientific Abstract Award at the Annual Autumn Conference of the Norwegian Neurosurgical Society.

Postdoc researcher Ingvild Rosenlund will present the results from her study Are diagnoses of unruptured intracranial aneurysms associated with quality of life, psychological distress, health anxiety, or use of healthcare services in untreated individuals? A longitudinal, nested case-control study, recently published in Brain & Spine. 

PhD-candidate Eirik Mikkelsen will talk about his study Reoperations in a NORspine cohort of patients operated for degenerative spondylolisthesis with micro-decompression alone vs decompression and instrumented fusion.

Rønnaug Hammervold presented the first results from her PhD project at the International Neurotrauma Society (INTS) Conference.

In an experimental porcine model, Rønnaug Hammervold and co-workers found that increases in positive end-expiratory airway pressure (PEEP) affected the mean intracranial pressure. The PEEP increase did not cause significant changes in the pressure reactivity index, and did thereby not have a negative impact on cerebral autoregulation. 

Hammervold points out that the results apply to healthy pigs and that further investigation is needed to study these assocations in clinical settings such as acute respiratory failure and intracranial hypertension.

The conference took place in Cambridge, UK, on Sept 2-5. 

Liv-Hege Johnsen defended her PhD thesis with the title "Intracranial artery disease in the general population. The Tromsø Study" on June 18, 2024

The members of the evaluation committee were professor Mona Beyer, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, docent Ola Nilsson, Dept. of Clinical Sciences, Lund University, Sweden, and assoc. professor Rune Sundset, UiT The Arctic University of Norway.

Intracranial aneurysms (IAs) and intracranial artery stenoses (ICAS) are diseases of the brain's arteries that can cause stroke. Data on the prevalence of both IAs and ICAS in Western populations is limited. In her PhD-project Liv-Hege Johnsen studied the prevalence of these two conditions in an MRI study of 1878 adults aged 40-84 years who participated in the population-based Tromsø Study.

The prevalence of IAs with maximum diameter ≥2 mm was 6.6%. Depending on the definition in terms of size and location, the prevalence ranged from 3.8% for intradural aneurysms ≥3 mm to 8.3% when both intra- and extradural aneurysms ≥1 mm were included. The higher prevalence observed in this study indicate that the risk of subarachnoid hemorrage in patients with unruptured aneurysms is lower than previously thought.  

The prevalence of ICAS ≥50% was 6%. There was an independent association between ICAS and age, male gender, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, current smoking, higher body mass index, and diabetes mellitus. ICAS was associated with presence of cortical brain infarctions, lacunes in the thalamus, periventricular white matter hyperintensities, and brain atrophy. The relatively high prevalence may suggest that the impact of ICAS is stronger than previouly assumed and may be a target for primary prevention.

Congratulations, Liv-Hege!

Medical Research Programme student Elisabet Danielsen has received a Fulbright student scholarship to the USA.

Her research year abroad will take place in the school year 2024-2025, where she be a student at the Department of Neurosurgery at Harvard University. During her stay, she will continue her work on her PhD project on operative treatment for degenerative cervical myelopathy, aimed at improving prognostic modelling and patient outcomes for this condition. 

Congratulations, Elisabet!

The Norwegian Medical Association’s Quality Price for the specialist health services was awarded to the eSTROKE project on May 28, 2024

The price was given to project leader and intensive care nurse John Helge Flage at Nordland Hospital and senior researcher Maren Ranhoff Hov at Oslo University Hospital (OUS) and Stiftelsen Norsk Luftambulanse (SNLA).

SNLA and OUS has previously conducted a study called ParaNASPP where the eSTROKE concept and a specially developed app was being used by paramedics in the pre-hospital stroke care. Nordland Hospital Trust (NLSH) has to together with SNLA implemented the results from this research in its pre-hospital service. 

 Two members from the Brain and Circulation Research Group, Ida Bakke, PhD student at UiT and advisor at NLSH, and Maria Carlsson, assoc. prof. at UiT and senior consultant at NLSH, has had central roles in the development and implementation of eSTROKE.

 The eSTROKE project is aimed at optimalization of the pre-hospital phase of stroke care and involves a stroke education programme, implementation of a standardized stroke scale examination (NIHSS; National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale) by paramedics and of an eSTROKE app. As the first hospital in Norway, NLSH has implemented eSTROKE through systematic education and training of the pre-hospital ambulance and helicopter services. The digital solution has been further developed to include direct transfer of the paramedic hospital report to the patient’s digital hospital record via the ambulance telephone.

 «It is wonderful and a great achievement that eSTROKE has received The Norwegian Medical Association’s Quality Price for this interdiciplinary project between primary and secondary care as well as between departments, clinics, two health regions and SNLA”, says Ida Bakke.

Previous results from ParaNASPP and the eSTROKE concept showed that this improved the detection of patients with mild (minor) strokes, which means that more patients were correctly identified as stroke patients. eSTROKE will now be implemented at the University Hospital of North Norway and in several other hospitals in Norway.

Melinda Roaldsen opened the Presidential Symposium Award & Large Clinical Studies session at ESOC 2024. In her talk, Melinda shared her personal experience as a stroke survivor and talked about the importance of maintaining hope and dreams.

Melinda talked about how her life changed completely from one moment to the next when she as a young stroke researcher was struck down with stroke 7 months earlier. From being an active young stroke researcher and Chief Operations Officer for the Stroke Action Plan for Europe in ESO, her life was now focused on being able to talk and walk again. She urged the audience to have high hopes and dreams for their patients. 

Melinda also took part in an ESOC TV interview presenting highlights from the conference.

A comment about Melinda's presentation can be found here.

Read more about Stroke Action Plan for Europe

The first results from a feasibility study from the Decentralized pre-hospital thrombolysis of stroke project were presented at the Norwegian Neurological Association’s Annual Conference in Oslo on March 13th.

The purpose of the projects was to assess the feasibility of a novel cockpit solution for remote-control of CT-scanners at a decentralized medical centre (DMC) for diagnosis and thrombolysis treatment of acute ischemic stroke patients. Senior consultant at UNN Susanne Ingebrigtsen presented the results at the conference. The project is led by assoc. professor Linn Steffensen.

The innovation project involves the following steps

• initial clinical assessment performed on site by paramedics
• novel cockpit remote-control system for CT-scanning at the DMC, operated by radiographers at the referral hospital
• real-time video/audio-communication for clinical assessments by paramedics at the DMC guided by stroke specialist at the referral hospital
• treatment decision made by stroke specialist at the referral hospital
• administration of intravenous thrombolysis by nurse at the DMC

The initial results show that the time from symptom onset to thrombolysis treatment (onset-to-treatment-time) and time from arrival to the DMC to thrombolysis (door-to-needle-time) were similar at the DMC and at stroke specialist center. The use of helicopter transportation was reduced compared to prior to the project start-up.

Dr. Ingebrigtsen concluded the cockpit solution with remote-controlled CT scan and real time video communication between paramedic and the stroke referral center is feasible and may be a realistic way to increase access to rapid thrombolytic treatment to ischemic stroke patients. This could be an alternative for  timely delivery of thrombolysis in less densely populated areas.

Agnethe Eltoft and Maria Carlsson presented stroke treatment updates at the 8. National Stroke Conference in Oslo Feb 15-16, 2024

Agnethe Eltoft gave an update on current evidence on thrombolysis for acute ischemic stroke. 

The lecture included topics such as tenecteplase vs. alteplase and thrombolysis in wake-up stroke, partly informed by results from the TWIST trial.  

The prognosis for patients with intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) is poor compared with ischemic stroke. In previous publications based on data from the Tromsø study, Maria Carlsson and colleagues found stable time trends in short- and long- term mortality rates in ICH patients during the last decade. This underlines  the need for better treatment strategies for these patients. At the 8th National Heart & Brain Conference in Oslo, she held a talk on updated treatment strategies for patients with acute ICH, including the bundle of care approach.  

Tonje Melum defended her PhD thesis "Aspects of brain health and pain tolerance in a general population” 

PhD candidate Tonje Melum defended her thesis on February 15, 2024.

In her research, Tonje Melum studied the relationships between pain tolerance and the volume of gray matter in the brain, cognitive function and previous stroke. The work was based on data from the The Tromsø Study, where MRI of the brain, cognitive testing, and experimental pain assessments were done in 1870 particpants of the 7^th survey. This provided a unique opportunity to examine these relationships in a general population. Pain tolerance was measured by the cold pressor test, where the participants are asked to keep their hand and wrist in a cold-water bath (3 degrees Celcius) for as long as they can or until a maximum time (106 or 120 seconds)

The results showed that arger total gray matter volume was associated with higher pain tolerance. The effect sizes were largest in regions of the brain that are known to be commonly activated by painful stimuli in functional studies. Likewise, higher scores on cognitive tests were associated with longer tolerance. Stroke was associated with lower pain tolerance. The findings have possible clinical implications, as patients with stroke or other brain diseases affecting gray matter volume or cognitive function might be more sensitive to or have more difficulty coping with pain. 

The members of the evaluation committee were professor Luis Garcia-Larrea, Lyon Centre for Neuroscience (CRNL), INSERM and Claude Bernard University Lyon 1, France, professor Cecilie Røe, Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo and associate professor Sissel Løseth, Department of Clinical Medicine, UiT. Professor Sigrid Brækkan was the chairperson of the dissertation.

The thesis is available here.

Congratulations, Tonje!

Photo, from left to right: Prof. Luis Garcia-Larrea (inserted, participated online), prof. Sigrid Brækkan, PhD Tonje Melum, prof. Cecilie Røe and assoc. prof. Sissel Løseth