Deans' stroke musings: Combined Technique for Internal Carotid Artery Terminus or Middle Cerebral Artery Occlusions in the ASTER2 Trial

Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain! trillions and trillions of neurons that DIE each day because there are NO effective hyperacute therapies besides tPA(only 12% effective). I have 523 posts on hyperacute therapy, enough for researchers to spend decades proving them out. These are my personal ideas and blog on stroke rehabilitation and stroke research. Do not attempt any of these without checking with your medical provider. Unless you join me in agitating, when you need these therapies they won't be there.

What this blog is for:

My blog is not to help survivors recover, it is to have the 10 million yearly stroke survivors light fires underneath their doctors, stroke hospitals and stroke researchers to get stroke solved. 100% recovery. The stroke medical world is completely failing at that goal, they don't even have it as a goal. Shortly after getting out of the hospital and getting NO information on the process or protocols of stroke rehabilitation and recovery I started searching on the internet and found that no other survivor received useful information. This is an attempt to cover all stroke rehabilitation information that should be readily available to survivors so they can talk with informed knowledge to their medical staff. It lays out what needs to be done to get stroke survivors closer to 100% recovery. It's quite disgusting that this information is not available from every stroke association and doctors group.

Friday, December 22, 2023

Combined Technique for Internal Carotid Artery Terminus or Middle Cerebral Artery Occlusions in the ASTER2 Trial

Survivors don't give a fuck about the intermediate step of reperfusion rates! They want 100% recovery and you bastards are not even measuring that!

“What's measured, improves.” So said management legend and author Peter F. Drucker

Combined Technique for Internal Carotid Artery Terminus or Middle Cerebral Artery Occlusions in the ASTER2 Trial

Alessandro Sgreccia,

Jean-Philippe Desilles,

and for the ASTER2 Investigators

Originally published21 Dec 2023https://doi.org/10.1161/STROKEAHA.123.045227Stroke. 2023;0

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

The aim of this study was to report the results of a subgroup analysis of the ASTER2 trial (Effect of Thrombectomy With Combined Contact Aspiration and Stent Retriever vs Stent Retriever Alone on Revascularization in Patients With Acute Ischemic Stroke and Large Vessel Occlusion) comparing the safety and efficacy of the combined technique (CoT) and stent retriever as a first-line approach in internal carotid artery (ICA) terminus±M1-middle cerebral artery (M1-MCA) and isolated M1-MCA occlusions.

METHODS:

Patients enrolled in the ASTER2 trial with ICA terminus±M1-MCA and isolated M1-MCA occlusions were included in this subgroup analysis. The effect of first-line CoT versus stent retriever according to the occlusion site was assessed on angiographic (first-pass effect, expanded Treatment in Cerebral Infarction score ≥2b50, and expanded Treatment in Cerebral Infarction score ≥2c grades at the end of the first-line strategy and at the end of the procedure) and clinicoradiological outcomes (24-hour National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale, ECASS-III (European Cooperative Acute Stroke Study) grades, and 3-month modified Rankin Scale).

RESULTS:

Three hundred sixty-two patients were included in the postsubgroup analysis according to the occlusion site: 299 were treated for isolated M1-MCA occlusion (150 with first-line CoT) and 63 were treated for ICA terminus±M1-MCA occlusion (30 with first-line CoT). Expanded Treatment in Cerebral Infarction score ≥2b50 (odds ratio, 11.83 [95% CI, 2.32–60.12]) and expanded Treatment in Cerebral Infarction score ≥2c (odds ratio, 4.09 [95% CI, 1.39–11.94]) were significantly higher in first-line CoT compared with first-line stent retriever in patients with ICA terminus±M1-MCA occlusion but not in patients with isolated M1-MCA.

CONCLUSIONS:

First-line CoT was associated with higher reperfusion(This is only the first step to 100% recovery! What are the follow on steps to get there?) grades in patients with ICA terminus±M1-MCA at the end of the procedure.