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Endovascular versus drug therapy to symptomatic middle cerebral artery (MCA) stenosis
ISRCTN ISRCTN62985634
ClinicalTrials.gov identifier
Public title Endovascular versus drug therapy to symptomatic middle cerebral artery (MCA) stenosis
Scientific title Randomised controlled trial of Symptomatic Middle cerebral artery (MCA) stenosis: Endovascular versus Drug therapy
Acronym RaSMED
Serial number at source N/A
Study hypothesis Intracranial arteriostenosis is one of the main causes of stroke. Although anti-platelet and anti-coagulation therapy are widely applied nowadays, the effectiveness of such methods is still controversial. Each treatment method has its advantages and disadvantages. There is evidence that anti-coagulation and anti-platelet therapies are not effective to all patients.

Endovascular therapy has been applied for several years, including stent technology and dilation with balloon, which has only been proven to be effective by a single-centre trial with a small size. Designing a randomised controlled trial is necessary to supply evidence to prove the effectiveness of endovascular therapy, which can also supply evidence for standardising the therapy of intracranial stenosis. Our study hypothesises that endovascular method is not inferior to medication.
Lay summary
Ethics approval Xuanwu Hospital Ethics Board gave approval on the 19th March 2008 (ref: XW-EA-08008)
Study design Randomised controlled trial
Countries of recruitment China
Disease/condition/study domain Intracranial atherosclerotic stenosis
Participants - inclusion criteria 1. Aged 25 - 75 years old (both genders) - half/bilateral stenosis on the M1 segment of the MCA - which is related to the onset of the cerebral ischaemia
2. Digital subtraction angiography (DSA) should be performed to verify such points as follows:
2.1. The degree of vascular stenosis should be greater than or equal to 70%
2.2. The length of lesion should be within 10 mm
2.3. The diameter of distal vessel should be more than 2 mm
3. Asymptomatic vascular stenosis greater than or equal to 50%
4. Atherosclerotic stenosis
5. National Institutes of Health Stroke Score (NIHSS) less than 15, and modified Rankin Scale (mRS) less than or equal to 3
6. The patient should be tolerant to both of the anti-platelet drugs
7. The patient should not be pregnant
Participants - exclusion criteria 1. Acute cerebral stroke occurs in the past one week, which is correlated to the vascular lesion
2. Those patients who have diseases of a haemorrhagic tendency
3. Anticipation of life span is within one year, especially in those patients who have a combined malignant disease
4. Acute dissecting aneurysm; vascular lesion is due to vasculitis, moya-moya disease, vasculopathy because of radiation, muscle fibrodysplasia
5. Calcification can be observed in the lesion segment, which is difficult to be dilated. Thrombus can be seen in the lumen of blood vessel.
6. Intracranial haematoma, tumour, brain arteriovenous malformation (BAVM), intracranial aneurysm (AM) (not including an AM whose diameter is less than 5 mm, and that is located in a different circle region)
7. Patients are excluded:
7.1. When there is a contraindication to heparin
7.2. When they are not tolerant to x-rays or anaesthesia
7.3. When their haemoglobin is less than 10 g/dL or their platelet is less than 100000/l
8. Patients who received thrombolysis in the past 24 hours
9. Symptomatic coronary artery disease, where revascularisation is needed
10. Surgical intervention has been performed in the last one month or will be performed in the next three months
11. Endovascular therapy was performed in the same target vessel previously
12. Multi-stenosis are found in the same target vessel, the degree of which is more than 50%
13. Stent-planting is hard to be performed because of the circuitry of the vessels
14. Symptomatic intracranial arterial stenosis is found not only in one vessel
Anticipated start date 01/01/2008
Anticipated end date 01/03/2009
Status of trial Completed
Patient information material Not available in web format, please use the contact details below to request a patient information sheet
Target number of participants 166
Interventions Drug therapy:
Clopidogrel 75 mg and aspirin 100 mg every day (QD), maintaining such a plan for 3 months. After that, aspirin 100 mg or clopidogrel 75 mg should be retained.

Endovascular therapy:
In this group, all the patients should take dual-antiplatelet drugs 3 - 5 days before treatment (clopidogrel 75 mg and aspirin 100 mg, every day). General anaesthesia will be selected, all the patients will receive stent-planting therapy. After the endovascular therapy, the anti-platelet drugs will be continued for 3 months. And then, one of the anti-platelet drugs will be maintained for the rest of life. Anticoagulation therapy will be applied for only 3 days after the stent-planting.
Primary outcome measure(s) 1. The patient died or experienced stroke within 30 days after the beginning of treatment
2. The stent does not cover the lesion or stenosis can't be retrieved completely (less than 50%)
Secondary outcome measure(s) DSA should be performed after six months if the patient receives endovascular therapy or the patient experiences stroke which is related to the target vessel.
Sources of funding Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission (China) - Beijing Scientific Project (ref: D0905004040131)
Trial website
Publications
Contact name Prof  Ling  Feng
  Address Department of Neurosurgery
Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University
Changchun Road
Xuanwu District
  City/town Beijing
  Zip/Postcode 100053
  Country China
  Email ling-feng@vip.163.com
Sponsor Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission (China)
  Address Xizhimen South Road 16#
  City/town Beijing
  Zip/Postcode 100053
  Country China
  Tel +86 (0)10 6615 3395
  Fax +86 (0)10 6611 4874
  Email bjkwwz@sina.com
  Sponsor website: http://www.bjkw.gov.cn/n1143/index.html
Date applied 01/04/2008
Last edited 29/10/2008
Date ISRCTN assigned 29/10/2008
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