Objectives: To elucidate the association between antiplatelet use in patients with non-haemorrhagic moyamoya disease before hospital admission and good functional status on admission in Japan.
Design: Retrospective, multicentre, non-randomised, observational study.
Setting: Nationwide registry data in Japan.
Participants: A total of 1925 patients with non-haemorrhagic moyamoya disease admitted between 1 April 2012 and 31 March 2014 in Japan.
Main outcome measure: We performed propensity score-matched analysis to examine the association between prehospital antiplatelet use and no significant disability on hospital admission, as defined by a modified Rankin Scale score of 0 or 1.
Results: Propensity-matched patients who received prehospital antiplatelet drugs were associated with a good outcome on hospital admission (OR adjusted for all covariates, 3.82; 95% CI 1.22 to 11.99) compared with those who did not receive antiplatelet drugs prior to hospital admission.
Conclusions: Prehospital antiplatelet use was significantly associated with good functional status on hospital admission among patients with non-haemorrhagic moyamoya disease in Japan. Our results suggest that prehospital antiplatelet use should be considered when evaluating outcomes of patients with non-haemorrhagic moyamoya disease.
Keywords: EPIDEMIOLOGY; STATISTICS & RESEARCH METHODS; STROKE MEDICINE.
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