ICU Management & Practice, ICU Volume 7 - Issue 2 - Summer 2007
At the “Stroke in Young Fabry Patients” conference, which took place in Berlin, in February 2007, the largest study on the causes of stroke in young patients up to date, SIFAP, was launched. The main focus of the study is Fabry Disease – one of the possible causes of this type of stroke. In the first step (SIFAP1), a total of 5,000 young stroke patients at over 30 European centres are going to be thoroughly examined for risk factors. After 18 months, SIFAP will allow conclusions to be drawn about the exact prevalence of Fabry Disease in young stroke patients. Up to 100 so far unrecognised Fabry patients are expected to be identified. As a part of a follow-up study (SIFAP 2), patients diagnosed with Fabry Disease are going to be monitored for 3.5 years and during this period, the effectiveness of prophylactic and therapeutic measures are going to be closely analysed. SIFAP is aimed at addressing physician’s current understanding of this rare lysosomal storage disorder and existing treatments.
