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BackgroundWe assessed the influence of prior non-vitamin K antagonist (NOAC) use on stroke outcomes after endovascular treatment (EVT) in patients at a high risk of stroke based on their pre-stroke CHA2DS2-VASc score, and compared them with those who did not use any antithrombotic (NAU) or antiplatelet (APT) agents.MethodsData were collected from a multicenter database comprising consecutive acute ischemic stroke patients who underwent EVT during a span of 103 months. We evaluated pre-stroke CHA2DS2-VASc scores in enrolled patients and measured instances of successful reperfusion and symptomatic hemorrhagic transformation (SHT) following EVT as the main outcome measures.ResultsAmong 12 807 patients with acute ischemic stroke, 3765 (29.4%) had a history of atrial fibrillation. Of these, 418 patients with CHA2DS2-VASc scores ≥2 received EVT alone. The prior NOAC group showed higher successful reperfusion rates compared with the prior NAU and APT groups (p=0.04). Multivariate analysis revealed that prior NOAC use increased the likelihood of successful reperfusion after EVT (OR [95% CI] 2.54 [1.34 to 4.83], p=0.004) and improved stroke outcomes, while the prior APT group did not. Furthermore, the prior NOAC use group was not associated with SHT after EVT. Propensity score matching confirmed these findings.ConclusionPrior use of NOAC is associated with improved outcomes in high-risk stroke patients (pre-stroke CHA2DS2-VASc score ≥2) undergoing EVT.

Introduction: We evaluated the effects of prior antiplatelet use (APU) on futile reperfusion (FR) after endovascular treatment (EVT) in acute ischemic stroke.Material and methods: We consecutively collected data of 9369 patients with acute ischemic stroke from four university-affiliated multicenter registry databases over 92 months. We enrolled 528 patients with acute stroke receiving EVT. Among them, we defined FR in subjects as a 3-month modified Rankin Scale score of >2 despite successful reperfusion after EVT. We classified patients into two groups: prior APU and no prior APU. We used propensity score matching (PSM) to overcome the imbalance in multiple covariates between the two groups. After PSM, we compared the baseline characteristics between the two groups and performed multivariate analysis to determine whether prior APU affected FR and other stroke outcomes.Results: The overall FR rate in the present study was 54.2%. In the PSM cohort, the FR was lower in the prior APU group than that in the no prior APU group (66.2% vs 41.5%, p< 0.001). In the multivariate analysis using the PSM cohort, prior APU significantly reduced the risk of FR (odds ratio (OR), 0.32; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.18–0.55; p= 0.001) and stroke progression (OR, 0.38; 95% CI, 0.15–0.93; p= 0.03). Prior APU was not associated with symptomatic hemorrhagic transformation in this study.Conclusion: Prior APU potentially reduced FR and stroke progression. Further, prior APU was not associated with symptomatic hemorrhagic transformation in patients receiving EVT. APU pretreatment can be a modifiable predictor of FR in clinical practice.

Background: This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of anticoagulants (AC) and antiplatelets (APT) in patients with recent small subcortical infarctions (RSSI) and atrial fibrillation (AF).Methods: We utilized a prospective multicenter stroke registry database to identify patients with RSSI with a concurrent diagnosis of AF. Propensity score matching analysis was used to balance baseline differences among the AC-only, APT-only, and their combination groups. The main outcomes of interest were time to occurrence of minor and major bleeding, stroke recurrence, and all-cause mortality. Adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for each outcome were calculated using the multivariable Cox proportional hazard regression analysis.Results: Of the 404 eligible patients, 28.2% received APT only, 53.0% received AC only, and 18.9% received a combination of both. Notable differences were observed between these groups in terms of the 1-year stroke recurrence (APT, 32.5%; AC, 5.6%; APT + AC, 9.2%) and all-cause mortality (APT, 21.9%; AC, 6.1%; APT + AC, 14.5%), whereas the rates of bleeding events were comparable. The multivariable analysis indicated a significant association of AC alone with reduced risks of severe bleeding, stroke recurrence, and all-cause mortality compared with APT alone (aHR 0.64, 95% CI 0.41–0.98; aHR 0.11, 95% CI 0.06–0.22; aHR 0.22, 95% CI 0.11–0.44, respectively). The combination group showed a reduced risk of stroke recurrence compared to APT alone (aHR 0.19, 95% CI 0.08–0.46). These findings remained consistent with the propensity score-matched analysis.Conclusion: AC showed better clinical outcomes than APT in patients with RSSI and AF. Additionally, combination therapy with AC and APT was associated with a lower risk of stroke recurrence than APT alone.