Profile of antiplatelet regimens for emergent carotid stenting in tandem occlusion. Systematic review and meta-analysis

Aim: To investigate the optimum antiplatelet therapy regimen (APTR) for emergent carotid artery stenting following mechanical thrombectomy (MT) in stroke patients with tandem occlusion.

Methods: A literature search was performed on Pubmed/OVID/Cochran's CENTRAL database for studies from 2015 to 2022. Patient characteristics, antiplatelet regimen type, mTICI, 90 days-mRS, acute in-stent thrombosis (AIST), mortality, intracranial hemorrhage (ICH), and sample size were recorded. Exclusion criteria were non-English literature, sample size < 5 patients, other anticoagulant/antiplatelet therapy, and 100 % stent insertion in one study arm. The studies were assessed using MINORS/GRADE. Meta-analysis and meta-regression with a random effects model were performed. The outcomes were: 90 days-mRS, death, AIST and ICH RESULTS: Five-hundred-twenty-four studies were retrieved. After applying the exclusion criteria, the final population included 19/534 studies (3.6 %) for 880 patients (46.3 per article). I^2 and Q's Cochrane were 86.4 % and 132.5 for mRS, 19.9 % and 17.5 for death, 0 % and 9.4 for acute in-stent thrombosis and 62.1 % and 39.7 for intra-cranial haemorrhages, respectively. Patients in the aspirin subgroup had a significantly lower rate of functional independence (mRS≤2) than those in the DAPT subgroup (47 % [CI95 % 42.0 %-52.0 %] vs. 61.9 % [CI95 % 50.8-72.9]; p=0.0007;OR 0.75[CI95 % 0.56-1.01], p=0.06). DAPT significantly decreased the death rate compared with aspirin (8.6 % [CI95 % 5.3 %-11.9 %] vs. 16.7 % [CI95 11.1 %-22.2 %]; p=0.0012). Anti-GPIIb/IIIa demonstrated a trend of increasing the probability of mortality versus DAPT (OR 1.88[CI95 % 0.93-3.86], p=0.08. No significant differences were observed between AIST and ICH in the treatment groups.

Conclusion: DAPT may increases the chance of obtaining an mRS score ≤2 and reduces mortality.