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Purpose: Endovascular treatment (EVT) of acute ischemic stroke can be complicated by vessel perforation. We studied the incidence and determinants of vessel perforations. In addition, we studied the association of vessel perforations with functional outcome, and the association between location of perforation on digital subtraction angiography (DSA) and functional outcome, using a large EVT registry. Methods: We included all patients in the MR CLEAN Registry who underwent EVT. We used DSA to determine whether EVT was complicated by a vessel perforation. We analyzed the association with baseline clinical and interventional parameters using logistic regression models. Functional outcome was measured using the modified Rankin Scale at 90 days. The association between vessel perforation and angiographic imaging features and functional outcome was studied using ordinal logistic regression models adjusted for prognostic parameters. These associations were expressed as adjusted common odds ratios (acOR). Results: Vessel perforation occurred in 74 (2.6%) of 2794 patients who underwent EVT. Female sex (aOR 2.0 (95% CI 1.2–3.2)) and distal occlusion locations (aOR 2.2 (95% CI 1.3–3.5)) were associated with increased risk of vessel perforation. Functional outcome was worse in patients with vessel perforation (acOR 0.38 (95% CI 0.23–0.63)) compared to patients without a vessel perforation. No significant association was found between location of perforation and functional outcome. Conclusion: The incidence of vessel perforation during EVT in this cohort was low, but has severe clinical consequences. Female patients and patients treated at distal occlusion locations are at higher risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background The effectiveness of endovascular treatment (EVT) for large vessel occlusion (LVO) stroke severely depends on time to treatment. However, it remains unclear what the value of faster treatment is in the years after index stroke. The aim of this study was to quantify the value of faster EVT in terms of health and healthcare costs for the Dutch LVO stroke population. Methods A Markov model was used to simulate 5- year follow- up functional outcome, measured with the modified Rankin Scale (mRS), of 69- year- old LVO patients. Post- treatment mRS was extracted from the MR CLEAN Registry (n=2892): costs per unit of time and Quality- Adjusted Life Years (QALYs) per mRS subscore were retrieved from follow- up data of the MR CLEAN trial (n=500). Net Monetary Benefit (NMB) at a willingness to pay of €80 000 per QALY was reported as primary outcome, and secondary outcome measures were days of disability- free life gained and costs. Results EVT administered 1 min faster resulted in a median NMB of €309 (IQR: 226;389), 1.3 days of additional disability- free life (IQR: 1.0;1.6), while cumulative costs remained largely unchanged (median: -€15, IQR: --65;33) over a 5- year follow- up period. As costs over the follow- up period remained stable while QALYs decreased with longer time to treatment, which this results in a near- linear decrease of NMB. Since patients with faster EVT lived longer, they incurred more healthcare costs. Conclusion One- minute faster EVT increases QALYs while cumulative costs remain largely unaffected. Therefore, faster EVT provides better value of care at no extra healthcare costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background collateral status modified the effect of endovascular treatment (EVT) for stroke in several randomized trials. We assessed the association between collaterals and functional outcome in EVT treated patients and investigated if this association is time dependent. Methods We included consecutive patients from the Multicenter Randomized clinical Trial of Endovascular Treatment for Acute Ischemic stroke in The Netherlands (MR cLEAN) Registry (March 2014-June 2016) with an anterior circulation large vessel occlusion undergoing EVT. Functional outcome was measured on the modified Rankin scale (MRS) at 90 days. We investigated the association between collaterals and mRs in the MR CLEAN Registry with ordinal logistic regression and if this association was time dependent with an interaction term. Additionally, we determined modification of EVT effect by collaterals compared with MR cLEAN controls, and also investigated if this was time dependent with multiplicative interaction terms. Results 1412 patients were analyzed. Functional independence (mRs score of 0-2) was achieved in 13% of patients with grade 0 collaterals, in 27% with grade 1, in 46% with grade 2, and in 53% with grade 3. collaterals were significantly associated with mRs (adjusted common OR 1.5 (95% ci 1.4 to 1.7)) and significantly modified EVT benefit (P=0.04). None of the effects were time dependent. Better collaterals corresponded to lower mortality (P<0.001), but not to lower rates of symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage Conclusion In routine clinical practice, better collateral status is associated with better functional outcome and greater treatment benefit in EVT treated acute ischemic stroke patients, independent of time to treatment. Within the 6 hour time window, a substantial proportion of patients with absent and poor collaterals can still achieve functional independence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current guidelines for ischaemic stroke treatment recommend a strict, but arbitrary, upper threshold of 185/110 mm Hg for blood pressure before endovascular thrombectomy. Nevertheless, whether admission blood pressure influences the effect of endovascular thrombectomy on outcome remains unknown. Our aim was to study the influence of admission systolic blood pressure (SBP) on functional outcome and on the effect of endovascular thrombectomy. We used individual patient data from seven randomised controlled trials (MR CLEAN, ESCAPE, EXTEND-IA, SWIFT PRIME, REVASCAT, PISTE, and THRACE) that randomly assigned patients with anterior circulation ischaemic stroke to endovascular thrombectomy (predominantly using stent retrievers) or standard medical therapy (control) between June 1, 2010, and April 30, 2015. We included all patients for whom SBP data were available at hospital admission. The primary outcome was functional outcome (modified Rankin Scale) at 90 days. We assessed the association of SBP with outcome in both the endovascular thrombectomy group and the control group using multilevel regression analysis and tested for non-linearity and for interaction between SBP and effect of endovascular thrombectomy, taking into account treatment with intravenous thrombolysis. We included 1753 patients (867 assigned to endovascular thrombectomy, 886 assigned to control) after excluding 11 patients for whom SBP data were missing. We found a non-linear association between SBP and functional outcome with an inflection point at 140 mm Hg (732 [42%] of 1753 patients had SBP <140 mm Hg and 1021 [58%] had SBP ≥140 mm Hg). Among patients with SBP of 140 mm Hg or higher, admission SBP was associated with worse functional outcome (adjusted common odds ratio [acOR] 0·86 per 10 mm Hg SBP increase; 95% CI 0·81–0·91). We found no association between SBP and functional outcome in patients with SBP less than 140 mm Hg (acOR 0·97 per 10 mm Hg SBP decrease, 95% CI 0·88–1·05). There was no significant interaction between SBP and effect of endovascular thrombectomy on functional outcome (p=0·96). In our meta-analysis, high admission SBP was associated with worse functional outcome after stroke, but SBP did not seem to negate the effect of endovascular thrombectomy. This finding suggests that admission SBP should not form the basis for decisions to withhold or delay endovascular thrombectomy for ischaemic stroke, but randomised trials are needed to further investigate this possibility. Medtronic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Between-center variation in outcome may offer opportunities to identify variation in quality of care. By intervening on these quality differences, patient outcomes may be improved. However, whether observed differences in outcome reflect the true quality improvement potential is not known for many diseases. Therefore, we aimed to analyze the effect of differences in performance on structure and processes of care, and case-mix on between-center differences in outcome after endovascular treatment (EVT) for ischemic stroke.Methods: In this observational cohort study, ischemic stroke patients who received EVT between 2014 and 2017 in all 17 Dutch EVT-centers were included. Primary outcome was the modified Rankin Scale, ranging from 0 (no symptoms) to 6 (death), at 90 days. We used random effect proportional odds regression modelling, to analyze the effect of differences in structure indicators (center volume and year of admission), process indicators (time to treatment and use of general anesthesia) and case-mix, by tracking changes in tau2, which represents the amount of between-center variation in outcome.Results: Three thousand two hundred seventy-nine patients were included. Performance on structure and process indicators varied significantly between EVT-centers (P < 0.001). Predicted probability of good functional outcome (modified Rankin Scale 0-2 at 90 days), which can be interpreted as an overall measure of a center's case-mix, varied significantly between 17 and 50% across centers. The amount of between-center variation (tau2) was estimated at 0.040 in a model only accounting for random variation. This estimate more than doubled after adding case-mix variables (tau2: 0.086) to the model, while a small amount of between-center variation was explained by variation in performance on structure and process indicators (tau2: 0.081 and 0.089, respectively). This indicates that variation in case-mix affects the differences in outcome to a much larger extent.Conclusions: Between-center variation in outcome of ischemic stroke patients mostly reflects differences in case-mix, rather than differences in structure or process of care. Since the latter two capture the real quality improvement potential, these should be used as indicators for comparing center performance. Especially when a strong association exists between those indicators and outcome, as is the case for time to treatment in ischemic stroke. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]