The annual rate of stroke recurrence was 2.26% in the standard-treatment group and 1.65% in the intensive-treatment group. Intensive treatment tended to reduce stroke recurrence (hazard ratio, 0.73), but the result was not statistically significant. “The nonsignificant finding might be due to early termination or the modest difference in blood pressure level [between groups],” said Dr. Kitagawa.
Subgroup analyses did not indicate any interaction between treatment group and age, sex, qualifying event, mean systolic blood pressure at baseline, or diabetes. The rate of ischemic stroke was similar between the two groups, but the rate of intracerebral hemorrhage was lower in the intensive treatment group than in the standard treatment group. The rate of serious adverse events was similar between treatment groups.
When Dr. Kitagawa and colleagues pooled their data with those examined in the 2018 meta-analysis, they found that intensive treatment significantly reduced the risk of recurrent stroke (hazard ratio, 0.68), compared with standard treatment.
This study was sponsored by Biomedis International.
SOURCE: Kitagawa K et al. ISC 2019, Abstract LB10.