Stefan T Engelter, Lukas S Enz, Flavia Ravanelli, Josefin E Kaufmann, Henrik Gensicke, Sabine Schaedelin, Andreas R Luft, Christoph Globas, Barbara Goeggel-Simonetti, Urs Fischer, Davide Strambo, Georg Kägi, Krassen Nedeltchev, Timo Kahles, Lars Kellert, Sverre Rosenbaum, Regina von Rennenberg, Alex Brehm, David Seiffge, Susanne Renaud, Tobias Brandt, Hakan Sarikaya, Annaelle Zietz, Johannes Wischmann, Alexandros A Polymeris, Sandro Fischer, Leo H Bonati, Gian Marco De Marchis, Nils Peters, Christian H Nolte, Hanne Christensen, Susanne Wegener, Marios-Nikos Psychogios, Marcel Arnold, Philippe Lyrer, Christopher Traenka
{"title":"The 6-months follow-up of the TREAT-CAD trial: Aspirin versus anticoagulation for stroke prevention in patients with cervical artery dissection.","authors":"Stefan T Engelter, Lukas S Enz, Flavia Ravanelli, Josefin E Kaufmann, Henrik Gensicke, Sabine Schaedelin, Andreas R Luft, Christoph Globas, Barbara Goeggel-Simonetti, Urs Fischer, Davide Strambo, Georg Kägi, Krassen Nedeltchev, Timo Kahles, Lars Kellert, Sverre Rosenbaum, Regina von Rennenberg, Alex Brehm, David Seiffge, Susanne Renaud, Tobias Brandt, Hakan Sarikaya, Annaelle Zietz, Johannes Wischmann, Alexandros A Polymeris, Sandro Fischer, Leo H Bonati, Gian Marco De Marchis, Nils Peters, Christian H Nolte, Hanne Christensen, Susanne Wegener, Marios-Nikos Psychogios, Marcel Arnold, Philippe Lyrer, Christopher Traenka","doi":"10.1177/23969873251315362","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Cervical artery dissection is a major cause of stroke in the young. The optimal choice and duration of antithrombotic treatment for stroke prevention are debated, particularly beyond 3 months after symptom onset.</p><p><strong>Patients and methods: </strong>TREAT-CAD (<b>TREAT</b>ment of <b>C</b>ervical <b>A</b>rtery <b>D</b>issection) was a randomized controlled trial with blinded outcome assessment comparing non-inferiority of aspirin to anticoagulation (Vitamin-K-antagonists) in participants with symptomatic, Magnetic-Resonance-(MR)-imaging-verified cervical artery dissection. TREAT-CAD could not establish non-inferiority of aspirin to anticoagulation at 3 months. Thereafter participants could continue antithrombotic medication and obtained a standardized assessment of clinical and MR-Imaging outcomes between 3 and 6 months. As crossover to the other treatment arm was possible, we performed an as-treated analysis as main analysis. The main outcomes were new clinical (ischemic stroke, intracranial/major extracranial bleeding, or death) and new MR-Imaging outcomes (ischemic or hemorrhagic brain lesions).</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Among the 122 participants in the as-treated analysis, 3/93 (3.2%) aspirin-treated participants had new clinical (<i>n</i> = 1) and MRI-outcomes (<i>n</i> = 2) between 3 and 6 months while 1/29 (3.4%) anticoagulated participants had an MRI-outcome (<i>n</i> = 1). All outcome events were hemorrhagic while ischemic events were absent. No deaths occurred. This yields an absolute difference of 0.2% (95% CI -8.0% to 7.5%, <i>p</i> = 1.0).</p><p><strong>Discussion and conclusion: </strong>During the extended follow-up period of a controlled randomized trial comparing aspirin to anticoagulation in cervical artery dissection, outcomes between 3 and 6 months after randomization occurred rarely, similarly often in both groups and were exclusively hemorrhagic events. Thus, studies balancing benefits versus harms of antithrombotic treatment beyond 3 months are warranted. Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02046460. https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02046460.</p>","PeriodicalId":46821,"journal":{"name":"European Stroke Journal","volume":" ","pages":"23969873251315362"},"PeriodicalIF":5.8000,"publicationDate":"2025-02-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11803590/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"European Stroke Journal","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23969873251315362","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"CLINICAL NEUROLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Introduction: Cervical artery dissection is a major cause of stroke in the young. The optimal choice and duration of antithrombotic treatment for stroke prevention are debated, particularly beyond 3 months after symptom onset.
Patients and methods: TREAT-CAD (TREATment of Cervical Artery Dissection) was a randomized controlled trial with blinded outcome assessment comparing non-inferiority of aspirin to anticoagulation (Vitamin-K-antagonists) in participants with symptomatic, Magnetic-Resonance-(MR)-imaging-verified cervical artery dissection. TREAT-CAD could not establish non-inferiority of aspirin to anticoagulation at 3 months. Thereafter participants could continue antithrombotic medication and obtained a standardized assessment of clinical and MR-Imaging outcomes between 3 and 6 months. As crossover to the other treatment arm was possible, we performed an as-treated analysis as main analysis. The main outcomes were new clinical (ischemic stroke, intracranial/major extracranial bleeding, or death) and new MR-Imaging outcomes (ischemic or hemorrhagic brain lesions).
Results: Among the 122 participants in the as-treated analysis, 3/93 (3.2%) aspirin-treated participants had new clinical (n = 1) and MRI-outcomes (n = 2) between 3 and 6 months while 1/29 (3.4%) anticoagulated participants had an MRI-outcome (n = 1). All outcome events were hemorrhagic while ischemic events were absent. No deaths occurred. This yields an absolute difference of 0.2% (95% CI -8.0% to 7.5%, p = 1.0).
Discussion and conclusion: During the extended follow-up period of a controlled randomized trial comparing aspirin to anticoagulation in cervical artery dissection, outcomes between 3 and 6 months after randomization occurred rarely, similarly often in both groups and were exclusively hemorrhagic events. Thus, studies balancing benefits versus harms of antithrombotic treatment beyond 3 months are warranted. Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02046460. https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02046460.
期刊介绍:
Launched in 2016 the European Stroke Journal (ESJ) is the official journal of the European Stroke Organisation (ESO), a professional non-profit organization with over 1,400 individual members, and affiliations to numerous related national and international societies. ESJ covers clinical stroke research from all fields, including clinical trials, epidemiology, primary and secondary prevention, diagnosis, acute and post-acute management, guidelines, translation of experimental findings into clinical practice, rehabilitation, organisation of stroke care, and societal impact. It is open to authors from all relevant medical and health professions. Article types include review articles, original research, protocols, guidelines, editorials and letters to the Editor. Through ESJ, authors and researchers have gained a new platform for the rapid and professional publication of peer reviewed scientific material of the highest standards; publication in ESJ is highly competitive. The journal and its editorial team has developed excellent cooperation with sister organisations such as the World Stroke Organisation and the International Journal of Stroke, and the American Heart Organization/American Stroke Association and the journal Stroke. ESJ is fully peer-reviewed and is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Issues are published 4 times a year (March, June, September and December) and articles are published OnlineFirst prior to issue publication.