Endovascular Treatment for Acute Basilar Artery Occlusion

Endovascular Treatment for Acute Basilar Artery Occlusion - a Multicenter Randomized Clinical Trial

Rationale: Recently, two prospective multicenter RCT reported a potential beneficial effect of endovascular thrombectomy (EVT) in patients with an acute symptomatic basilar artery occlusion (BAO). However, the high rate of crossover in BEST study and the long-term of recruitment in BASICS study influenced the validity of the results. Besides, a recently prospective clinical registry with large sample size (BASILAR) showed a significantly beneficial effect of EVT in BAO patients.

Objective: To assess the effect of EVT in addition to best medical management (BMM) compared to BMM alone, in patients with BAO, caused by a CTA/MRA confirmed occlusion of the basilar artery on functional and safety outcome.

Study design: This is a parallel group, randomized clinical trial of EVT with BMM versus BMM. The trial has observer blind assessment of the primary outcome and of neuro-imaging at baseline and follow up.

Study population: Patients with acute ischemic stroke and a confirmed basilar artery occlusion by CTA/MRA.

Main study parameters/outcomes: The primary effect parameter will be favourable outcome at day 90 defined as a modified Rankin Score (mRS) of 0-3. The estimate will be adjusted for the known prognostic variables age, pre-stroke mRS, time from onset to randomization, stroke severity (NIHSS) and collaterals and adjusted and unadjusted estimates with corresponding 95% confidence intervals will be reported.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Basilar Artery Occlusion; Acute Cerebrovascular Accident; Stroke Due to Basilar Artery Occlusion
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: best medical management; Procedure: endovascular treatment

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 340
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• China
  • Anhui
    • Hefei, Anhui, China, 239300
      • The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria

1. Symptoms and signs compatible with ischemia in the basilar artery territory；
2. Basilar artery occlusion confirmed by CTA/MRA/DSA；
3. Age of 18 years or older；
4. Time from stroke onset to randomization within 12 hours of estimated time of basilar artery occlusion (defined as the sudden onset of stroke symptoms consistent with acute occlusion of the basilar artery (e.g. not considering any previous minor prodromal symptoms) as adjudicated by two local experienced neurologists). If symptoms of sudden deterioration are not witnessed (e.g. wake-up or unwitnessed strokes) the time that the patient was last known to be without any major neurological deficits (such as moderate or severe weakness, stupor, coma) will be used as the time of stroke onset.
5. Written informed consent;
6. National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score ≥10 at the time of neuroimaging Exclusion criteria

1. Pre-existing dependency with mRS ≥3 for patients<80 years; premorbid mRS≥1 for patients≥80 years； 2. bilateral mydriasis; 3. Pregnancy; if a woman is of childbearing potential a urine or serum beta HCG test is positive; 4. Severe contrast allergy or absolute contraindication to iodinated contrast; 5. Participation in other clinical trials; 6. Systolic pressure >185 mmHg or diastolic pressure >110 mmHg, and cannot be controlled by antihypertensive drugs; 7. Known genetic or acquired bleeding constitution, lack of anticoagulant factors, or oral anticoagulant drugs and INR > 1.7; 8. Blood glucose < 2.7 or >22.2 mmol / L; platelet count < 50×109 / L, or hematocrit < 25%; 9. Life expectancy < 1 year； 10. Patients that cannot complete 90-day follow-up (e.g. no fixed residence, overseas patients, etc.)； 11. Acute ischemic cerebral infarction within 48 hours after major surgery (patients can be enrolled if more than 48 hours); 12. Premorbid cerebrovascular inflammation; 13. Premorbid nervous system disease or mental disorders hindering the assessment of the disease; Imaging exclusion criteria

1. CT/MR shows intracranial hemorrhage (patients with microbleeds on MR can be included if lesion diameter ≤5mm);
2. CTA/MRA/DSA shows the artery is seriously tortuous, variability or dissection, and thrombectomy device cannot reach the target vessel;
3. PC-ASPECTS on CT/CTA-Source Images/MRI-DWI <6 for patients<80 years (<8 for patients ≥80 years);
4. CT or MR shows the cerebellar infarction with obvious space occupying effect and obvious compression of the fourth ventricle;
5. Complete bilateral thalami or bilateral brainstem infarction confirmed by CT/MR;
6. Occlusion of both anterior and posterior circulation confirmed by CTA/MRA/DSA;
7. Intracranial tumors (except small meningiomas).

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: best medical management; Unless contra-indicated patients are treated with a standard full dose of open-label IV rt-PA (0.9mg/kg; 90mg maximum). IVT has to be initiated within 4.5 hours of estimated time of basilar artery occlusion. For the patients in whom the rtPA is contraindicated, the standard medical treatment follows the current guidelines for the early management of patients with acute ischemic stroke from the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association.	Other: best medical management; best medical management
Experimental: endovascular treatment+ best medical management; Device: endovascular treatment For patients randomized to endovascular treatment arm, EVT has to be initiated within 12 hours of estimated time of basilar artery occlusion. If an appropriate thrombus or residual stenosis is identified, the choice of EVT strategy will be made by the treating neurointerventionalist. The endovascular procedures allowed by the steering committee include mechanical thrombectomy, intra-arterial thrombolysis, balloon angioplasty, stent implantation, or any combination of above procedures. We recommend applying ADAPT as the first choice of treatment. All mechanical thrombectomy devices for EVT, which are approved by CFDA for this purpose, are allowed in the trial.	Procedure: endovascular treatment; For patients randomized to endovascular treatment arm, EVT has to be initiated within 12 hours of estimated time of basilar artery occlusion. If an appropriate thrombus or residual stenosis is identified, the choice of EVT strategy will be made by the treating neurointerventionalist. The endovascular procedures allowed by the steering committee include mechanical thrombectomy, intra-arterial thrombolysis, balloon angioplasty, stent implantation, or any combination of above procedures. We recommend applying ADAPT as the first choice of treatment. All mechanical thrombectomy devices for EVT, which are approved by CFDA for this purpose, are allowed in the trial.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
a modified Rankin Score of 0-3	Favourable outcome at day 90 (± 14 days)	90 (± 14 days) after procedure

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
a modified Rankin Score of 0-2	Excellent outcome	90 (± 14 days) after procedure
Modified Rankin Score	The mRS is an ordinal hierarchical scale ranging from 0 to 5, with higher scores indicating more severe disability.	90 (± 14 days) after procedure
NIHSS score	The NIHSS is an ordinal hierarchical scale to evaluate the severity of stroke by assessing a patient's performance. Scores range from 0 to 42, with higher scores indicating a more severe deficit.	24 hours after procedure
NIHSS score	The NIHSS is an ordinal hierarchical scale to evaluate the severity of stroke by assessing a patient's performance. Scores range from 0 to 42, with higher scores indicating a more severe deficit.	5-7 days after procedure
mortality	(Number of subjects who died at 90-day follow-up/total number of subjects who participated in 90-day follow-up) x100%	90 (± 14 days) after procedure
symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH)	SICH means any hemorrhage with neurological deterioration, as indicated by an NIHSS score that was higher by ≥4 points than the value at baseline or the lowest value in the first 72 hours or any hemorrhage leading to death.	within 72 hours after procedure

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: The First Affiliated Hospital of University of Science and Technology of China

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Tao C, Nogueira RG, Zhu Y, Sun J, Han H, Yuan G, Wen C, Zhou P, Chen W, Zeng G, Li Y, Ma Z, Yu C, Su J, Zhou Z, Chen Z, Liao G, Sun Y, Ren Y, Zhang H, Chen J, Yue X, Xiao G, Wang L, Liu R, Liu W, Liu Y, Wang L, Zhang C, Liu T, Song J, Li R, Xu P, Yin Y, Wang G, Baxter B, Qureshi AI, Liu X, Hu W; ATTENTION Investigators. Trial of Endovascular Treatment of Acute Basilar-Artery Occlusion. N Engl J Med. 2022 Oct 13;387(15):1361-1372. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2206317.
• Hankey GJ. Endovascular Therapy for Acute Basilar Artery Occlusion. Circulation. 2022 Jul 5;146(1):18-20. doi: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.122.060571. Epub 2022 Jul 5. No abstract available.
• Tao C, Li R, Zhu Y, Qun S, Xu P, Wang L, Zhang C, Liu T, Song J, Sun W, Wang G, Baxter B, Qureshi A, Liu X, Nogueira RG, Hu W. Endovascular treatment for acute basilar artery occlusion: A multicenter randomized controlled trial (ATTENTION). Int J Stroke. 2022 Aug;17(7):815-819. doi: 10.1177/17474930221077164. Epub 2022 Feb 22.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): February 21, 2021
• Primary Completion (Actual): January 3, 2022
• Study Completion (Actual): April 3, 2022

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: February 9, 2021
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 11, 2021
• First Posted (Actual): February 12, 2021

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): September 15, 2022
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 14, 2022
• Last Verified: September 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: endovascular treatment; randomized; mechanical thrombectomy; thrombectomy; best medical management
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Cardiovascular Diseases; Vascular Diseases; Cerebrovascular Disorders; Brain Diseases; Central Nervous System Diseases; Nervous System Diseases; Stroke; Arterial Occlusive Diseases
• Other Study ID Numbers: Attention

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: Undecided

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No