Clinical Neurological Sciences (CNS)

Academic Appointment

Professor of Neurology and Epidemiology, Western University; Distinguished University Professor

Publications

PubMed Publication Listing

Bio Sketch

Distinguished University Professor.

Dr. Hachinski received his MD from the University of Toronto. After completing his residency training at the same university, Dr. Hachinski undertook a Cerebrovascular Laboratory fellowship at the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases at Queen Square in London, England and a research fellowship at Bispebjerg Hospital in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Dr. Hachinski is Professor of Neurology and Distinguished University Professor at Western University, Founding Chairman of the International Society for Vascular Behavioural and Cognitive Disorders, and President of the World Federation of Neurology, 2010-. An international expert on stroke prevention, he introduced the concepts and terms for multi-infarct dementia, leukoaraiosis and vascular cognitive impairment as well as devised the Ischemic Score, which remains a standard for distinguishing Alzheimer from multi-infarct dementia.

He was Editor-in-Chief of Stroke Journal, the leading publication in the field for an unprecedented 10 year term from 2000-2010. He has contributed to over 600 book chapters, scientific papers, editorials and other scholarly publications. He is the author of 16 books including Stroke: A Comprehensive Guide to Brain Attack, co-authored with his daughter Larissa Hachinski, which was written to increase public awareness of "brain attacks," a term coined by Dr. Hachinski to help drive home the urgency of strokes.

He has received 3 honorary degrees. He has also received the Mihara International Award, Order of Canada, World Stroke Organization Leadership in Stroke Medicine Award, the Premier's Discovery Award in the Life Sciences and Medicine for "ground breaking research on relationship between stroke and Alzheimer disease" and most recently, the International BIAL Merit Award in Medical Sciences for his monograph on "The Long Fuse: Silent Strokes and Insidious Alzheimer Disease" He is President of the World Federation of Neurology, comprising of 114 national neurological societies.

Research

Dr. Hachinski's research involves clinical and experimental studies in the prevention and delay of stroke and Alzheimer's disease in collaboration with David F. Cechetto of Western's Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology. They have observed with the use animal models that levels of protein amyloid increases and causes inflammation and damage when a stroke is produced. To combat this, they are researching drugs that can be given to reduce inflammation and amyloid deposits to prevent the development of Alzheimer's after a stroke and began studies in patients to confirm their experimental findings.

Dr. Hachinski's research also includes stroke risk factor controls. Only one three findings showed those with high blood pressure and high cholesterol have it normalized and in order to control these factors, Dr. Richard Chan, Cheryl Mayer,  and Vladimir Hachinski and their research team are using trained volunteers to work with high-risk patients for better control of blood pressure and other vascular risk factors.

Dr. Hachinski collaborates with Finnish researchers to develop risk profiles for cognitive decline, from two large longitudinal epidemiological studies.