Bailout intracranial angioplasty or stenting following thrombectomy for acute large vessel occlusion in China (ANGEL-REBOOT): a multicentre, open-label, blinded-endpoint, randomised controlled trial.

Unsuccessful recanalisation or reocclusion after thrombectomy is associated with poor outcomes in patients with large vessel occlusion (LVO) acute ischaemic stroke (LVO-AIS). Bailout angioplasty or stenting (BAOS) could represent a promising treatment for these patients. We conducted a randomised controlled trial with the aim to investigate the safety and efficacy of BAOS following thrombectomy in patients with LVO. ANGEL-REBOOT was an investigator-initiated, multicentre, prospective, randomised, controlled, open-label, blinded-endpoint clinical trial conducted at 36 tertiary hospitals in 19 provinces in China. Participants with LVO-AIS 24 h after symptom onset were eligible if they had unsuccessful recanalisation (expanded Thrombolysis In Cerebral Infarction score of 0-2a) or risk of reocclusion (residual stenosis >70%) after thrombectomy. Eligible patients were randomly assigned by the minimisation method in a 1:1 ratio to undergo BAOS as the intervention treatment, or to receive standard therapy (continue or terminate the thrombectomy procedure) as a control group, both open-label. In both treatment groups, tirofiban could be recommended for use during and after the procedure. The primary outcome was the change in modified Rankin Scale score at 90 days, assessed in the intention-to-treat population. Safety outcomes were compared between groups. This trial was completed and registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT05122286). From Dec 19, 2021, to March 17, 2023, 706 patients were screened, and 348 were enrolled, with 176 assigned to the intervention group and 172 to the control group. No patients withdrew from the trial or were lost to follow-up for the primary outcome. The median age of patients was 63 years (IQR 55-69), 258 patients (74%) were male, and 90 patients (26%) were female; all participants were Chinese. After random allocation, tirofiban was administered either intra-arterially, intravenously, or both in 334 [96%] of 348 participants. No between-group differences were observed in the primary outcome (common odds ratio 0·86 [95% CI 0·59-1·24], p=0·41). Mortality was similar between the two groups (19 [11%] of 176 vs 17 [10%] of 172), but the intervention group showed a higher risk of symptomatic intracranial haemorrhage (eight [5%] of 175 vs one [1%] of 169), parenchymal haemorrhage type 2 (six [3%] of 175 vs none in the control group), and procedure-related arterial dissection (24 [14%] of 176 vs five [3%] of 172). Among Chinese patients with unsuccessful recanalisation or who are at risk of reocclusion after thrombectomy, BAOS did not improve clinical outcome at 90 days, and incurred more complications compared with standard therapy. The off-label use of tirofiban might have affected our results and their generalisability, but our findings do not support the addition of BAOS for such patients with LVO-AIS. Beijing Natural Science Foundation, National Natural Science Foundation of China, National Key R&D Program Beijing Municipal Administration of Hospitals Incubating Program, Shanghai HeartCare Medical Technology, HeMo (China) Bioengineering, Sino Medical Sciences Technology.

Gao F ，Tong X ，Jia B ，Wei M ，Pan Y ，Yang M ，Sun D ，Nguyen TN ，Ren Z ，Demiraj F ，Yao X ，Xu C ，Yuan G ，Wan Y ，Tang J ，Wang J ，Jiang Y ，Wang C ，Luo X ，Yang H ，Shen R ，Wu Z ，Yuan Z ，Wan D ，Hu W ，Liu Y ，Jing P ，Wei L ，Zheng T ，Wu Y ，Yang X ，Sun Y ，Wen C ，Chang M ，Yin B ，Li D ，Duan J ，Sun D ，Guo Z ，Xu G ，Wang G ，Wang L ，Wang Y ，Jia W ，Ma G ，Huo X ，Mo D ，Ma N ，Liu L ，Zhao X ，Wang Y ，Fiehler J ，Wang Y ，Miao Z ... -  《-》

Balloon guide catheters for endovascular thrombectomy in patients with acute ischaemic stroke due to large-vessel occlusion in China (PROTECT-MT): a multicentre, open-label, blinded-endpoint, randomised controlled trial.

The effectiveness of using a balloon guide catheter during endovascular thrombectomy in patients with acute ischaemic stroke due to large vessel occlusion of the anterior circulation remains uncertain. We aimed to assess the effectiveness and safety of using a balloon guide catheter during endovascular thrombectomy, compared with using a conventional guide catheter, in this patient population. We conducted a multicentre, open-label, blinded-endpoint, randomised controlled trial at 28 hospitals in China. Adults aged 18 years or older with acute ischaemic stroke who were able to receive endovascular thrombectomy within 24 h after symptom onset, according to local guidelines, were eligible. Patients were randomly assigned (1:1) to the balloon guide catheter group or the conventional guide catheter group using a central internet-based system with a minimisation algorithm. The treating physicians and patients were aware of treatment allocation, but clinical outcomes were collected by local trained physicians who were masked. Neurological assessments were performed at baseline, 24 h after randomisation, and at 7 days or hospital discharge (whichever occurred first). The primary outcome was functional recovery, assessed by change in modified Rankin Scale (mRS) scores (ranging from 0 [no symptoms] to 6 [death]) at 90 days in the intention-to-treat population and obtained from structured interviews. Treatment effect was estimated using ordinal logistic regression with adjustment for site and baseline prognostic factors (time from symptom onset to randomisation, the preferred thrombectomy strategy, baseline National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score, prestroke function [estimated mRS score], and age). This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT05592054 (terminated). Between Feb 7 and Nov 13, 2023, 1698 patients were assessed for eligibility and 329 were randomly assigned to the balloon guide catheter group (n=164) or conventional guide catheter group (n=165) when the trial was paused and subsequently terminated on April 18, 2024, due to safety concerns. The median age was 69 years (IQR 59-76). Of 329 patients, 201 (61%) were male and 128 (39%) were female. Participants in the balloon guide catheter group had significantly worse scores on the mRS at 90 days than those in the conventional guide catheter group (adjusted common odds ratio 0·66 [95% CI 0·45-0·98]; p=0·037). All-cause mortality at 90 days was numerically higher in the balloon guide catheter group than in the conventional guide catheter group (39 [24%] vs 26 [16%]). There were no statistically significant differences between groups in intracranial haemorrhage, symptomatic intracranial haemorrhage, or other serious adverse events. Compared with conventional guide catheters, the use of balloon guide catheters led to worse functional recovery in patients receiving endovascular thrombectomy for intracranial large vessel occlusion. Future studies are needed to confirm these results. National Natural Science Foundation of China, Shanghai Hospital Development Center, Biopharma Industry Promotion Center Shanghai, and Ton-bridge Medical Technology. For the Chinese translation of the abstract see Supplementary Materials section.

Liu J ，Zhou Y ，Zhang L ，Li Z ，Chen W ，Zhu Y ，Yao X ，Zhang L ，Liu S ，Peng Y ，Wei M ，Zhang Q ，Shu H ，Wang S ，Liu W ，Wan S ，Li T ，Fang Y ，Han H ，Zhang G ，Huang L ，Wang F ，Cheng G ，Gao L ，Shi H ，Han J ，Luo Y ，Li S ，Cai C ，Yin R ，Jin Z ，Shao C ，Tian B ，Zhang Y ，Li Q ，Zhang Y ，Zhang P ，Li B ，Xing P ，Shen H ，Zhu X ，Zhang X ，Hua W ，Shen F ，Huyan M ，Chen R ，Zuo Q ，Li Q ，Huang Q ，Xu Y ，Deng B ，Zhao R ，Goyal M ，Zhang Y ，Yang P ，PROTECT-MT Investigators ... -  《-》

Comparison of Two Modern Survival Prediction Tools, SORG-MLA and METSSS, in Patients With Symptomatic Long-bone Metastases Who Underwent Local Treatment With Surgery Followed by Radiotherapy and With Radiotherapy Alone.

Survival estimation for patients with symptomatic skeletal metastases ideally should be made before a type of local treatment has already been determined. Currently available survival prediction tools, however, were generated using data from patients treated either operatively or with local radiation alone, raising concerns about whether they would generalize well to all patients presenting for assessment. The Skeletal Oncology Research Group machine-learning algorithm (SORG-MLA), trained with institution-based data of surgically treated patients, and the Metastases location, Elderly, Tumor primary, Sex, Sickness/comorbidity, and Site of radiotherapy model (METSSS), trained with registry-based data of patients treated with radiotherapy alone, are two of the most recently developed survival prediction models, but they have not been tested on patients whose local treatment strategy is not yet decided. (1) Which of these two survival prediction models performed better in a mixed cohort made up both of patients who received local treatment with surgery followed by radiotherapy and who had radiation alone for symptomatic bone metastases? (2) Which model performed better among patients whose local treatment consisted of only palliative radiotherapy? (3) Are laboratory values used by SORG-MLA, which are not included in METSSS, independently associated with survival after controlling for predictions made by METSSS? Between 2010 and 2018, we provided local treatment for 2113 adult patients with skeletal metastases in the extremities at an urban tertiary referral academic medical center using one of two strategies: (1) surgery followed by postoperative radiotherapy or (2) palliative radiotherapy alone. Every patient's survivorship status was ascertained either by their medical records or the national death registry from the Taiwanese National Health Insurance Administration. After applying a priori designated exclusion criteria, 91% (1920) were analyzed here. Among them, 48% (920) of the patients were female, and the median (IQR) age was 62 years (53 to 70 years). Lung was the most common primary tumor site (41% [782]), and 59% (1128) of patients had other skeletal metastases in addition to the treated lesion(s). In general, the indications for surgery were the presence of a complete pathologic fracture or an impending pathologic fracture, defined as having a Mirels score of ≥ 9, in patients with an American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) classification of less than or equal to IV and who were considered fit for surgery. The indications for radiotherapy were relief of pain, local tumor control, prevention of skeletal-related events, and any combination of the above. In all, 84% (1610) of the patients received palliative radiotherapy alone as local treatment for the target lesion(s), and 16% (310) underwent surgery followed by postoperative radiotherapy. Neither METSSS nor SORG-MLA was used at the point of care to aid clinical decision-making during the treatment period. Survival was retrospectively estimated by these two models to test their potential for providing survival probabilities. We first compared SORG to METSSS in the entire population. Then, we repeated the comparison in patients who received local treatment with palliative radiation alone. We assessed model performance by area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC), calibration analysis, Brier score, and decision curve analysis (DCA). The AUROC measures discrimination, which is the ability to distinguish patients with the event of interest (such as death at a particular time point) from those without. AUROC typically ranges from 0.5 to 1.0, with 0.5 indicating random guessing and 1.0 a perfect prediction, and in general, an AUROC of ≥ 0.7 indicates adequate discrimination for clinical use. Calibration refers to the agreement between the predicted outcomes (in this case, survival probabilities) and the actual outcomes, with a perfect calibration curve having an intercept of 0 and a slope of 1. A positive intercept indicates that the actual survival is generally underestimated by the prediction model, and a negative intercept suggests the opposite (overestimation). When comparing models, an intercept closer to 0 typically indicates better calibration. Calibration can also be summarized as log(O:E), the logarithm scale of the ratio of observed (O) to expected (E) survivors. A log(O:E) > 0 signals an underestimation (the observed survival is greater than the predicted survival); and a log(O:E) < 0 indicates the opposite (the observed survival is lower than the predicted survival). A model with a log(O:E) closer to 0 is generally considered better calibrated. The Brier score is the mean squared difference between the model predictions and the observed outcomes, and it ranges from 0 (best prediction) to 1 (worst prediction). The Brier score captures both discrimination and calibration, and it is considered a measure of overall model performance. In Brier score analysis, the "null model" assigns a predicted probability equal to the prevalence of the outcome and represents a model that adds no new information. A prediction model should achieve a Brier score at least lower than the null-model Brier score to be considered as useful. The DCA was developed as a method to determine whether using a model to inform treatment decisions would do more good than harm. It plots the net benefit of making decisions based on the model's predictions across all possible risk thresholds (or cost-to-benefit ratios) in relation to the two default strategies of treating all or no patients. The care provider can decide on an acceptable risk threshold for the proposed treatment in an individual and assess the corresponding net benefit to determine whether consulting with the model is superior to adopting the default strategies. Finally, we examined whether laboratory data, which were not included in the METSSS model, would have been independently associated with survival after controlling for the METSSS model's predictions by using the multivariable logistic and Cox proportional hazards regression analyses. Between the two models, only SORG-MLA achieved adequate discrimination (an AUROC of > 0.7) in the entire cohort (of patients treated operatively or with radiation alone) and in the subgroup of patients treated with palliative radiotherapy alone. SORG-MLA outperformed METSSS by a wide margin on discrimination, calibration, and Brier score analyses in not only the entire cohort but also the subgroup of patients whose local treatment consisted of radiotherapy alone. In both the entire cohort and the subgroup, DCA demonstrated that SORG-MLA provided more net benefit compared with the two default strategies (of treating all or no patients) and compared with METSSS when risk thresholds ranged from 0.2 to 0.9 at both 90 days and 1 year, indicating that using SORG-MLA as a decision-making aid was beneficial when a patient's individualized risk threshold for opting for treatment was 0.2 to 0.9. Higher albumin, lower alkaline phosphatase, lower calcium, higher hemoglobin, lower international normalized ratio, higher lymphocytes, lower neutrophils, lower neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, lower platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio, higher sodium, and lower white blood cells were independently associated with better 1-year and overall survival after adjusting for the predictions made by METSSS. Based on these discoveries, clinicians might choose to consult SORG-MLA instead of METSSS for survival estimation in patients with long-bone metastases presenting for evaluation of local treatment. Basing a treatment decision on the predictions of SORG-MLA could be beneficial when a patient's individualized risk threshold for opting to undergo a particular treatment strategy ranged from 0.2 to 0.9. Future studies might investigate relevant laboratory items when constructing or refining a survival estimation model because these data demonstrated prognostic value independent of the predictions of the METSSS model, and future studies might also seek to keep these models up to date using data from diverse, contemporary patients undergoing both modern operative and nonoperative treatments. Level III, diagnostic study.

Lee CC ，Chen CW ，Yen HK ，Lin YP ，Lai CY ，Wang JL ，Groot OQ ，Janssen SJ ，Schwab JH ，Hsu FM ，Lin WH ... -  《-》

Lamotrigine versus levetiracetam or zonisamide for focal epilepsy and valproate versus levetiracetam for generalised and unclassified epilepsy: two SANAD II non-inferiority RCTs.

Marson AG ，Burnside G ，Appleton R ，Smith D ，Leach JP ，Sills G ，Tudur-Smith C ，Plumpton CO ，Hughes DA ，Williamson PR ，Baker G ，Balabanova S ，Taylor C ，Brown R ，Hindley D ，Howell S ，Maguire M ，Mohanraj R ，Smith PE ... -  《-》

Safety and efficacy of intravenous recombinant human prourokinase for acute ischaemic stroke within 4·5 h after stroke onset (PROST-2): a phase 3, open-label, non-inferiority, randomised controlled trial.

Intra-arterial prourokinase has been shown to be a promising thrombolytic agent in patients with acute ischaemic stroke. Given the global shortage of thrombolytics, we aimed to assess the non-inferiority of intravenous recombinant human prourokinase compared with alteplase in patients with acute ischaemic stroke who were ineligible for or who refused endovascular thrombectomy. PROST-2 was a phase 3, open-label, non-inferiority, randomised controlled trial conducted at 61 hospitals in China. Patients older than 18 years with acute ischaemic stroke, who were ineligible for or who refused endovascular thrombectomy, were randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio within 4·5 h of stroke onset to receive intravenous recombinant human prourokinase (15 mg bolus followed by 20 mg infusion within 30 min) or intravenous alteplase (0·9 mg per kg, maximum dose 90 mg; 10% bolus followed by remainder as infusion over 60 min). The primary efficacy outcome was the proportion of patients with a modified Rankin Scale score of 0 or 1 at 90 days, assessed via masked review in the intention-to-treat population, with a non-inferiority margin for the risk ratio of 0·93. The primary safety outcome was the incidence of symptomatic intracranial haemorrhage within 36 h. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT05700591) and is now completed. Between Jan 29, 2023, and March 14, 2024, 1552 patients were randomly assigned: 775 received recombinant human prourokinase and 777 received alteplase. The primary outcome of a modified Rankin Scale score of 0 or 1 at 90 days was reached by 558 (72·0%) of 775 patients in the recombinant human prourokinase group versus 534 (68·7%) of 777 in the alteplase group (risk ratio 1·04 [95% CI 0·98 to 1·10]; p<0·0001 for non-inferiority). The frequency of symptomatic intracranial haemorrhage within 36 h was lower in the recombinant human prourokinase group than in the alteplase group (two [0·3%] of 770 patients vs ten [1·3%] of 775, risk difference -1·0 percentage points [95% CI -2·1 to -0·1]; p=0·021), as was the incidence of major bleeding at 7 days (four [0·5%] vs 16 [2·1%]; -1·5 percentage points (-2·8 to -0·4); p=0·0072). All-cause mortality within 7 days did not differ between groups (five [0·6%] deaths in the recombinant human prourokinase group vs 13 [1·7%] in the alteplase group; risk difference -1·0 percentage points; 95% CI -2·3 to 0·1]; p=0·060). In our trial, recombinant human prourokinase was shown to be non-inferior to alteplase for achieving excellent functional outcome, with no difference between groups in safety endpoints. These findings support the use of recombinant human prourokinase as a viable alternative to alteplase for patients with ischaemic stroke who are eligible for intravenous thrombolysis therapy but ineligible for or who have refused endovascular thrombectomy. Tasly Biopharmaceuticals, National Key R&D Program of China, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences Innovation Fund for Medical Sciences, and Beijing Municipal Science & Technology Commission. For the Chinese translation of the abstract see Supplementary Materials section.

Li S ，Gu HQ ，Feng B ，Li H ，Wang X ，Dong Q ，Fan D ，Xu Y ，Zhu S ，Dai H ，Wei Y ，Wang Z ，Lu G ，Ma Y ，Li Z ，Wang Y ，Meng X ，Zhao X ，Liu L ，Wang Y ，PROST-2 investigators ... -  《-》