Objective To systematically evaluate the influence of alcohol intervention on the outcome of rats and mice with ischemic stroke. Methods Databases including PubMed, EMbase, BIOSIS and CNKI were electronically searched from establishment dates of databases to June 2012 to retrieve animal experiments on the influence of alcohol intervention on the outcome of rats and mice with ischemic stroke. The relevant studies were identified according to the predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria, the data were extracted, and the quality was evaluated. Then meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.1 software. Results Eight studies were included. The results of meta-analysis showed that no significant difference was found between the alcohol intervention group and the control group (MD=?6.98%, 95%CI ?20.38% to 6.43%, P=0.31). However, compared with the control group, low dose of acute alcohol intervention (less than 2 g/kg) improved the prognosis of ischemic stroke with a significant difference (MD=?22.83%, 95%CI ?38.77% to ?6.89%, P=0.005), and highly-concentrated of chronic alcohol intervention worsened the cerebral ischemic damage of rats and mice with a significant difference (MD=24.06%, 95%CI 10.54% to 37.58%, P=0.000 5). Conclusion Low dose of acute alcohol intervention (less than 2 g/kg) could improve the prognosis of rats and mice with ischemic stroke which has the potential neuro-protective effects. However, highly-concentrated chronic alcohol intervention could worsen the cerebral ischemic damage. Due to the limitations of the included studies such as publication bias, the influence of alcohol intervention on the outcome of rats and mice with ischemic stroke could be overestimated.
In recent years, the incidence rate of ischemic stroke in people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) is increasing, attracting wide attention from scholars at home and abroad. In addition to traditional risk factors of stroke, the secondary ischemic stroke in PLWHA is also affected by HIV infection. This study reviews the incidence rate and risk factors of secondary ischemic stroke in PLWHA, in order to provide a theoretical basis for preventing and reducing the incidence of ischemic stroke in PLWHA.
ObjectiveTo analyze the patterns of recurrent strokes among patients with initial ischemic stroke and investigate the possible predictors of recurrent ischemic stroke.
MethodPatients with recurrent strokes after initial ischemic strokes hospitalized in our hospital between January 2008 and December 2012 were included in the study, and the data of general demographic information, life history, past medical history and laboratory test results were all retrospectively analyzed. The patterns of recurrent strokes in patients with initial ischemic stroke were analyzed, and multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to investigate the independent risk factors for recurrent ischemic stroke.
ResultsA total of 237 patients were included in this study, including 198 patients with recurrent ischemic stroke and 39 patients with recurrent hemorrhagic stroke. Among patients with recurrent ischemic stroke, there were 137 patients with anterior circulation stroke, 52 with posterior circulation stroke and 9 with multiple infarction. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that older age at initial stroke onset[OR=1.968, 95%CI (1.533, 2.152), P=0.009], frequent mood swings[OR=1.345, 95%CI (1.121, 1.783), P=0.011], hyperlipidemia[OR=1.436, 95%CI (1.216, 1.732), P=0.018] and atrial fibrillation[OR=3.417, 95%CI (2.927, 4.897), P=0.005] were independent risk factors for recurrent ischemic stroke.
ConclusionsIschemic stroke is the most common pattern of recurrent strokes; and aging, frequent mood swings, hyperlipidemia and atrial fibrillation are possible predictors of recurrent ischemic stroke after the initial ischemic stroke.
ObjectiveTo systematically review the effectiveness of scalp acupuncture for treating ischemic stroke.
MethodWe searched databases including PubMed, EMbase, MEDLINE, The Cochrane Library, CBM, CNKI, VIP and WanFang Data from inception to December 30th 2014 for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on scalp acupuncture in the treatment of ischemic stroke. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data, and assessed risk bias of included studies. Then, meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.2 software.
ResultsA total of 27 studies involving 2 741 patients were included. The results of meta-analysis showed that:a) As for the improvement of nervous functional deficiency, the scalp acupuncture plus drug group was superior to the drug alone group (MD=-5.33, 95%CI -6.71 to -3.96, P<0.000 01), and the scalp acupuncture plus conventional therapy group was superior to the conventional therapy alone group (MD=-2.11, 95%CI -3.31 to -0.91, P=0.0006). b) As for the effective rate, the scalp acupuncture group was superior to the body acupuncture group (OR=0.28, 95%CI 0.15 to 0.53, P<0.000 01), the scalp acupuncture plus drug group was superior to the drug alone group (OR=0.20, 95%CI 0.14 to 0.29, P<0.000 01), and the scalp acupuncture plus conventional therapy group was superior to the conventional therapy alone group (OR=0.12, 95% CI 0.02 to 0.56, P=0.008). However, there was no significant difference between the scalp acupuncture group and the drug alone group (OR=0.16, 95%CI 0.03 to 0.97, P=0.05).
ConclusionScalp acupuncture appears to be an effective adjuvant therapy method for ischemic stroke, and can significantly improve the nervous functional deficiency when combined with other treatment. However, the strength of evidence is low due to high risk of bias of the included studies. More rigorous studies are needed to verify the above conclusion.
Ischemic stroke can lead to disruption in the oral ecology and an overgrowth of pathogenic bacteria, resulting in periodontal disease. Meanwhile, the aspiration and pulmonary infection resulted from dysphagia can increase the unfavorable prognosis. Some studies have found that there exist oral bacteria in the thrombus in myocardial infarction and ischemic stroke patients, showing that oral flora might be associated with thrombus and stroke-associated pneumonia. There are few high quality clinical studies or evidence-based guidelines. Priority should be given to high quality research that provides oral care standards, and incorporating oral care into future stroke pathways to improve the prognosis.
Objective To investigate whether there is an off-hours effect on the endovascular treatment (EVT) process for patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS) after emergency admission to the hospital. Methods We retrospectively analyzed AIS patients who were admitted to the West China Hospital of Sichuan University on the stroke green channel between September 2019 and August 2023 and planned to perform emergency EVT. The patients were divided into working-hour and off-hour groups according to their admission time. The clinical information, door-to-puncture time (DPT), door-to-head/neck imaging time (DIT) and door-to-blood test time (DBT) of the two groups patients were compared, and subgroup analysis was conducted according to whether they arrived at the hospital at night, before and after the guideline update, and whether they were in the coronavirus disease 2019 epidemic period. Results A total of 586 AIS patients with large vessel occlusion were included, including 220 patients admitted during working hours and 336 patients admitted during off-working hours. There was no statistically significant difference in the basic information and EVT process time between patients admitted during working hours and patients admitted during off-working hours (P>0.05). Subgroup analysis showed that in patients admitted during off-working hours, there was no statistically significant difference in the basic information and EVT process time between patients arrived at the hospital at night and patients did not arrive at the hospital at night (P>0.05). Before and after the guideline updated, there was no statistically significant difference in the basic information and EVT process time between patients admitted during working hours and patients admitted during off-working hours (P>0.05). No matter whether it is in the coronavirus disease 2019 epidemic period, there was no statistically significant difference in the basic information and EVT process time between patients admitted during working hours and patients admitted during off-working hours (P>0.05). Conclusions There is no off-hours effect on the EVT process time after AIS patients arrive at the hospital. In the future, more stroke centers of different levels are needed to further explore the impact of off-hours effect on emergency diagnosis and treatment of AIS patients.
Objective To analyze the methodological quality of clinical trails on butylphthalide for cerebral ischemic stroke. Methods We collected all of the published clinical studies on butylphthalide for cerebral ischemic stroke in the world, and evaluated the methodological quality of the included studies according to clinical epidemiologic standard. The search time was from the establishment of each database to December, 2009. Results A total of 62 studies involving 5 762 patients were included. In all included studies, there were 56 randomized controlled trials (RCTs). A total of 8 studies described the method of random assignments. There were 4 multi-center randomized double-blind placebo-control trials. A total of 55 reported diagnosis criteria, 40 reported included criteria, 28 reported excluded criteria; 36 reported the curative efficacy at the end of the treatment, 51 assessed the neurological deficit score of patients before and after the treatment, 27 evaluated the ADL scores; 32 studies reported the side effects; 6 trials did not conduct intention-to-treat analysis even though some people withdrew the treatment because of the side effects or poor tolerance, etc. Conclusion Except for several high quality RCTs, current quality of some clinical trials on butylphthalide for ischemic stroke should be improved. We recommend that researchers should use internationally accepted consolidate standards of reporting trials (CONSORT) in future studies.
Objective To systematically assess the clinical efficacy and safety of cilostazol for preventing ischemic stroke recurrence. Methods Such databases as PubMed, The Cochrane Library, EMbase, CNKI, CBM, and VIP were searched for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on the use of cilostazol to prevent ischemic stroke recurrence (up to November, 2010). Two researchers selected studies and extracted data independently using a designed extraction form. The quality of included trials was evaluated and RevMan 5.0 software was used for meta-analyses. Results Four RCTs involving 3 916 patients were included. The results of meta-analyses showed that there were significant differences between cilostazol and aspirin in terms of hemorrhagic stroke occurrence (RR=0.39, 95%CI 0.24 to 0.61, Plt;0.000 1), headache occurrence (RR=1.99, 95%CI 1.16 to 3.43, P=0.01) and dizziness occurrence (RR=1.43, 95%CI 1.13 to 1.79, P=0.002). Whereas, no significant difference was found between the two groups in terms of ischemic stroke recurrence (RR=0.80, 95%CI 0.61 to 1.04, P=0.10) and transient ischemic attack occurrence (RR=0.93, 95%CI 0.45 to 1.92, P=0.85). Conclusion The current evidence indicates that cilostazol is as effective as aspirin in preventing ischemic stroke recurrence, but with less incidence of hemorrhagic stroke.
