Revacept in Symptomatic Carotid Stenosis

Patients suffering from symptomatic carotid artery stenosis, transient ischemic attacks (TIAs), amaurosis fugax or stroke receive either Revacept (single dose) plus antiplatelet monotherapy or monotherapy alone. Patients receive a single dose of trial medication by intravenous infusion for 20 minutes. Patients are followed up one and three days after treatment, at 3 months and by a telephone interview at 12 months.

Patients had a more than 50% carotid artery stenosis according to ECST and suffered from ischemic stroke, transitory ischemic attack or intermittent blindness (amaurosis fugax) within the last 30 days. All patients were on standard medication with aspirin or clopidogrel and received heparin for thrombosis prophylaxis. Carotid endarterectomy (CEA), carotid stenting (CAS) or best medical therapy for treatment of the carotid stenosis and prevention of secondary thrombo-emboli was performed according to guidelines. Additional treatment with Revacept or placebo was done on top of the standard therapy. Therefore the control group receiving placebo was already on the standard medical therapy for patients with symptomatic carotid stenosis and received also the guideline conform interventions CEA, CAS or best medical therapy. Secondary prophylaxis of thrombo-embolic ischemic events by Revacept should be investigated. Therefore microemboli were detected by transcranial Doppler and ischemic brain lesions were investigated by diffusion weighted imaging magnetic resonance imaging (DWI-MRI) scan as exploratory endpoints. Moreover clinical endpoints such as stroke, TIA, myocardial infarction, coronary intervention and death were investigated at 1 week, 3 months and 12 months follow-up. Safety was closely monitored with emphasis on bleeding complications as bleeding is the most dreaded complication of anti-thrombotic agents especially in patients with cerebral strokes.