Preventing Recurrent Vascular Events in Patients With Stroke or Transient Ischemic Attack

• Status: Completed
• Trial end date: 2013-11-01
• Target enrollment: 0
• Participant gender: All

Summary

People who have had a stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA or "mini-stroke") are at high risk of having another stroke or a heart attack. Conditions like high blood pressure and high cholesterol, along with other lifestyle behaviors (e.g., smoking), substantially increase the risk of stroke and heart disease. Aggressive treatment of these risk factors however, can significantly reduce the chance of another stroke, heart attack or death.

This study will look at different ways to optimize blood pressure and cholesterol levels and educate people about positive lifestyle changes.

• Phase: Phase 4
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers?: No

Details

• Lead Sponsor: University of Alberta
• Collaborators: Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research; Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada
• Treatments: Antihypertensive Agents

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

• A stroke specialist-determined ischemic stroke or TIA within the past year (including ocular strokes/TIA such as amaurosis fugax).

• Presence of systemic hypertension (average systolic blood pressure over two visits - i.e., SPC visit and study screening visit- exceeding 140 mmHg) OR fasting LDL cholesterol exceeding 2.0 mmol/L OR total: HDL cholesterol ratio exceeding 4.0 at SPC visit.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Neurological event considered to be due to intracranial hemorrhage (e.g., ICH, SAH), or trauma induced, or related to structural heart disease such as ASD/VSD or endocarditis.

• Foreshortened life-expectancy (e.g., active malignancy), hypertensive crisis (clinic systolic BP > 200 mm Hg), or severe comorbidities.

• Institutionalized in a long-term care facility.

• Cognitive impairment (defined as a score of > 5 on the Short Portable Mental Status questionnaire).

• Already on maximal therapy for risk factors (on 3 antihypertensive drugs at maximal dose if hypertension is inclusion criterion or on maximal dose statin if hyperlipidemia is inclusion criterion).