Early Administration of Edoxaban After Acute Ischemic Stroke in Patients With Non-valvular Atrial Fibrillation

Acute Ischemic Stroke Clinical Trial

Official title: Early Administration of Edoxaban After Acute Ischemic Stroke in Patients With Non-valvular Atrial Fibrillation: a Randomized, Multi-center, Parallel-group Trial (PILOT)

Status Completed

Clinical Trial Summary

The investigators hypothesize that earlier initiation of edoxaban in AF-related stroke patients may significantly reduce the early recurrence of ischemic stroke, compared with conventional strategy of anticoagulation following 1-3-6-12 rule. To expedite the verification of the hypothesis, the investigators are planning to use diffusion weighted imaging (DWI), which has been reported to be a surrogate to predict both short-term and long-term prognosis after stroke, to detect the recurrent ischemic events. Because data on the early anticoagulation in patients with AF-related stroke are limited, the investigators decided to perform a pilot study before establishing an appropriate clinical trial protocol. This study will help estimate the efficacy and safety of early administration of edoxaban, and determine the sample size of a following clinical trial. To ensure the safety in this pilot exploration, the investigators will not include patients with severe ischemic strokes, who are often prone to experience hemorrhagic transformation in the acute post-stroke period.

Clinical Trial Description

In patients with ischemic stroke and atrial fibrillation (AF), the risk of stroke recurrence is high, especially shortly after the event. Because AF-related strokes are usually larger in their size and more fatal than other types of ischemic stroke, it is important to prevent recurrent cardioembolic strokes with adequate secondary prevention. However, as damaged brain tissues and vessels are prone to bleed, early anticoagulation may be harmful.

For this reason, urgent anticoagulation has not been recommended in stroke patients with AF, and the appropriate time point to start anticoagulation remains controversial. Guideline recommends 1-3-6-12 rule* in initiating anticoagulation. However, this rule is not derived from a scientifically proven study results. Furthermore, although the risk of intracranial hemorrhage may be reduced to some extent with this strategy, the risk of early recurrence of embolic stroke may outweigh the potential benefit of delayed anticoagulation.

Edoxaban, which selectively blocks factor Xa, has a lower risk of hemorrhage, but with a similar efficacy in preventing ischemic events in patients with AF compared with warfarin. Even compared with the other factor Xa inhibitors, it is considered to have a lower risk of bleeding. Therefore, edoxaban may be safely given in the early phase in patients with stroke associated with AF, while not significantly increasing the risk of hemorrhages. ;

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Acute Ischemic Stroke
• Atrial Fibrillation
• Cerebral Infarction
• Ischemia
• Stroke

• NCT number: NCT03433235
• Study type: Interventional
• Source: Asan Medical Center
• Status: Completed
• Phase: Phase 2
• Start date: June 19, 2018
• Completion date: July 2, 2020