Newswise — LOS ANGELES (June 14, 2011) – Patrick D. Lyden, MD, chairman of the Department of Neurology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and a world-renowned expert in stroke research and intervention, has been named associate editor of the International Journal of Stroke, one of the top peer-reviewed publications on the subject.
The journal focuses on research that has practical, clinical applications. It covers topics of global importance, provides region-specific features and includes stroke-related news from all parts of the world. Associate editors from Europe, Asia, North America and South America coordinate journal content.
Lyden, who leads clinical trials that are international in scope and has served on the journal’s editorial board since 2008, is well known for his work translating basic research into practical stroke treatments. He was one of the key researchers in the major clinical trial leading to Food and Drug Administration approval in 1996 of tPA – tissue plasminogen activator – which remains the only proven and approved drug for stroke treatment. When given to a patient soon after stroke onset, tPA, commonly called the clot-busting drug, sometimes can clear a blocked artery, restore blood flow to the brain and reverse the stroke’s effects.
He first published research articles about tPA in 1987 and now has written more than 200 journal articles and abstracts, edited a textbook and written a dozen book chapters on stroke effects and therapies. With the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, part of the National Institutes of Health, he produced and directed an award-winning training video that was translated into many languages for worldwide distribution.
Lyden, the Carmen and Louis Warschaw Chair in Neurology at Cedars-Sinai, is principal investigator of the “ICTuS” (Intravascular Cooling in the Treatment of Stroke) trials evaluating post-stroke hypothermia therapy in a variety of patient populations and circumstances. The rapid, controlled cooling of a patient’s body temperature is intended to reduce long-term neurological damage.
Lyden was invited to join the International Journal of Stroke’s editorial team as associate editor because of “his excellent reputation in the field, his commitment and enthusiasm for building better stroke communities worldwide and his years of experience both as an editorial board member and stroke practitioner,” said Editor-in-Chief Geoffrey A. Donnan, director of the Florey Neuroscience Institutes and professor of neurology at the University of Melbourne, Australia.
After receiving his medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine, Lyden completed an internship at Mercy Hospital and Medical Center in San Diego and a neurology residency and stroke fellowship at the University of California, San Diego Medical Center. He joined Cedars-Sinai in 2009, becoming the Department of Neurology’s inaugural chairman. He previously served as professor and vice chairman for clinical neurology in UCSD’s Department of Neurosciences and was director of the Stroke Center at the UCSD Medical Center.
Cedars-Sinai is a regional stroke referral center for complicated cases. The Stroke Program has received the Gold Award from the American Stroke Association, is certified as a Primary Stroke Center by The Joint Commission and is an Approved Stroke Center of Los Angeles County’s Emergency Medical Services Agency.
The International Journal of Stroke, launched in 2005, is the flagship publication for the World Stroke Organization, which was established in 2006 with the merger of the International Stroke Society and the World Stroke Federation, the two lead organizations representing stroke globally. The journal has the fastest-growing “impact factor” – a measure of the frequency with which articles are cited – in the field of stroke.
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