67 - “Is stroke being treated as a heart-brain axis disease?”
Abstract: Despite the fact that up to one-third of strokes are cardioembolic, clinical practice and research often remain siloed between cardiology and neurology. This talk will challenge this divide, drawing from a research profile that merges computational modeling and data science across both domains. I will present our work on atrial fibrillation, where we use biophysical simulations and digital twins to understand thrombus formation in the left atrial appendage and plan device interventions, as part of the recently finished SimCardioTest EU project. We are now expanding this framework in the GEMINI EU's project to build a full heart-brain computational axis, linking cardiac models of embolism with neurovascular models of thrombectomy. Ultimately, this talk will explore the technical and clinical barriers we face in moving from siloed specialties to a truly integrated, heart-brain approach for stroke management.
