Cerebrovascular diseases
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Cerebrovascular diseases · Feb 2010
Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Comparative StudyEffect of intravenous tirofiban and aspirin in reducing short-term and long-term neurologic deficit in patients with ischemic stroke: a double-blind randomized trial.
Thrombolysis with rt-PA is the only approved pharmacological therapy for acute ischemic stroke presently administrable in a 3-hour window (very recently extended to 4.5 h). After this time, the choice is limited to endovascular treatment and antiplatelet drugs, mainly aspirin (ASA), the efficacy of which in the acute phase of stroke has poorly been evaluated. We compared the efficacy of tirofiban, a GP-IIb/IIIa inhibitor, and ASA, with both drugs being administered within 6 h. ⋯ In spite of the fact that the null hypothesis was not supported by our data, we found results supporting the safety (and potential efficacy) of ASA and tirofiban when used in the first hours of acute ischemic stroke. However, this needs to be confirmed by further studies.