Neurologist receives award to help develop new brain scanning techniques

Dr. Shelagh CouttsPosted June 25, 2009
Award-winning neurologist Dr. Shelagh Coutts, a member of the Hotchkiss Brain Institute (HBI) in the Faculty of Medicine, is developing new brain scanning techniques for rapid and effective diagnosis of mini-strokes.

To support this leading and innovative research in Alberta, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada has awarded Coutts, assistant professor in the Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Calgary, with the first Distinguished Clinician Scientist 2009 award.

“We are so pleased to be presenting our very first Distinguished Clinician Scientist award to Dr. Coutts. This is the highest ranking and most prestigious award offered to a researcher by the Foundation,” says Sally Brown, CEO of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada. The award is presented in partnership with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health and AstraZeneca Canada Inc.

Because time is of the essence when dealing with a mini-stroke or a transient ischemic attack (TIA), patients need to be diagnosed and treated as quickly as possible. Almost half of recurrent strokes, large or small, occur within two days of the initial TIA.


“Patients who may be having a mini-stroke don’t always have access to an MRI to see what’s happening in the brain,” explains Dr. Coutts. “In order to quickly visualize where there is a bleed or blockage in the brain, we are developing a combined approach using a CT scan together with an angiogram (CTA) [injecting a dye into the bloodstream to visualize the blood vessels].”

Coutts is a member of the Calgary Stroke Program which provides acute, rehabilitative and preventative care to stroke patients in southern Alberta. Her research focuses on the use of imaging in the triage and treatment of stroke and TIA patients in the Emergency Department, as well as identifying imaging and clinics factors in high risk TIA and minor stroke patients. Imaging the brain using these cutting edge biomedical technologies is one of HBI’s research priorities.

Dr. Coutts started this study, entitled CATCH, one year ago with the support of an ongoing CIHR grant and Pfizer Cardiovascular Research Award. The study will test the new CTA technique on 400 patients having a TIA so as to map their stroke. 

“Once we analyze the data, we’ll be able to predict which patients are at a higher risk of having a second stroke,” says Dr. Coutts. “We’re likely to have a significant impact on preventing major strokes in urban and rural Alberta.”

Coutts has received a number of awards for her work, including the “Siekert New Investigator Award” from the American Stroke Association, as well as the 2008 Petro Canada Young Innovator Award in Community Health. She also holds a clinical investigator award from the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research.


About the Hotchkiss Brain Institute
The Hotchkiss Brain Institute at UCalgary, consists of more than 100 physicians and scientists who are dedicated to advancing neurological and mental health research and education. The Institute’s research strengths in foundational neuroscience (axon biology and regeneration, cerebral blood flow and metabolism, synaptic transmission and neural systems) are leading to new treatments for neurological and psychiatric disorders, aimed at improving quality of life and patient care.  More information on the Hotchkiss Brain Institute can be found at www.hbi.ucalgary.ca

About the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Calgary
UCalgary’s Faculty of Medicine is a national leader in health research with an international reputation for excellence and innovation in health care research, education and delivery. We train the next generation of health practitioners and move new treatments and diagnostic techniques from the laboratory bench to the hospital bedside, improving patient care.  For more information visit http://medicine.ucalgary.ca. or follow us on twitter.com @UofCMedicine

About biomedical engineering at the University of Calgary
The University of Calgary has 100+ researchers from the faculties of science, medicine, veterinary medicine and kinesiology and the Schulich School of Engineering are focused on biomedical engineering research.  The U of C is expanding its internationally recognized work in the rapidly growing field of biomedical engineering with the creation of the National Biomedical Engineering Innovation Centre.  The purpose of the Centre is to invent, develop and commercialize technologies to be used in the health care sector that will help prevent, diagnose and treat illnesses. The National Biomedical Engineering Innovation Centre will be a catalyst for Alberta’s growing biomedical economy.