A large randomized trial that was investigating intensive lowering of blood pressure in acute ischemic stroke patients who had undergone mechanical thrombectomy has been stopped early because of safety concerns.
"Intensive control of systolic blood pressure to lower than 120 mm Hg should be avoided to prevent compromising the functional recovery of patients who have received endovascular thrombectomy for acute ischemic stroke due to intracranial large-vessel occlusion," the investigators conclude.
Results from the ENCHANTED2/MT trial were presented by Craig Anderson, MD, professor of neurology and epidemiology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, on October 28 at the 14th World Stroke Congress (WSC), which is taking place in Singapore.
The study was simultaneously published online in The Lancet.
"What our results have pretty convincingly shown is that in acute stroke patients who have undergone mechanical thrombectomy, lowering blood pressure down to a systolic of 120 mm Hg for 3 days is too low for too long. We shouldn't go that far down," Anderson told theheart.org | Medscape Cardiology.
Anderson said the trial has provided an important message for clinical practice.
"This result is not what we expected, but it is a definitive result and gives us a lower safety margin for blood pressure in acute ischemic stroke patients.
