Association between intravenous tirofiban and intracranial hemorrhage in acute large vessel occlusion stroke: insight from the RESCUE BT randomized placebo-controlled trial

Background The aim of this study is to investigate the association between intravenous tirofiban and symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage (SICH) in patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS) secondary to large vessel occlusion (LVO) receiving endovascular thrombectomy (EVT) within 24 h of time last known well (LKW). Methods Patients with AIS-LVO who were randomly assigned to receive intravenous tirofiban or placebo before EVT within 24 h of time LKW and had follow-up brain non-contrast computed tomography within 24 h after stopping tirofiban treatment were derived from “RESCUE BT”: a multicenter, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial. All eligible patients were divided into SICH and NO-SICH groups. Subgroup analyses were performed to explore for heterogeneity. Results Of 945 patients included in this cohort, there were 76 (8.0%) in the SICH group and 869 (92.0%) in the NO-SICH group. The incidence of SICH was not higher in patients receiving intravenous tirofiban compared with placebo (adjusted risk ratio (RR), 1.51; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.97–2.36; P = 0.07). Subgroup analyses showed that age greater than 67-year-old (adjusted RR, 2.18; 95% CI 1.18–4.00), NIHSS greater than 16 (adjusted RR, 1.88; 95% CI 1.06–3.34), and cardioembolism (adjusted RR, 3.73; 95% CI 1.66–8.35) were associated with increased SICH risk. Conclusions In patients with acute large vessel occlusion stroke, intravenous tirofiban before EVT within 24 h of time from last known well is not associated with increased risk of SICH. Patients who are older, have more severe neurological deficits, or with cardioembolism are at higher risk of SICH with intravenous tirofiban. Trial registration number URL: http://www.chictr.org.cn ; Unique identifier: ChiCTR-INR-17014167.