Transient brain ischemic symptoms and the presence of ischemic lesions at neuroimaging - Results from the READAPT study

Background: According to the literature, about one third of patients with brain ischemic symptoms lasting <24 hours, which are classified as TIAs according to the traditional "time-based" definition, show the presence of acute ischemic lesions at neuroimaging. Recent evidence has shown that the presence of acute ischemic lesions at neuroimaging may impact on the outcome of patients with transient ischemic symptoms treated with dual antiplatelet treatment (DAPT). This uncertainty is even more compelling in recent years as short-term DAPT has become the standard treatment for any non-cardioembolic TIA or minor ischemic stroke. Methods: This is a pre-specified subgroup analysis from a prospective multicenter real-world study (READAPT). The analysis included patients with time-based TIA - i.e. those with ischemic symptoms lasting <24 hours - who started DAPT. In the whole population, we assessed the presence of acute brain ischemic lesions at neuroimaging and their association with the ABCD2 score. To assess the impact of acute brain ischemic lesions on 90-day prognosis, we performed a propensity score matching of patients with and without those lesions. We adopted a primary effectiveness outcome which was a composite of new stroke/TIA events and death due to vascular causes at 90 days. Results: We included 517 patients - 324 (62.7%) male - with a median (interquartile range - IQR) age of 74 (IQR 65-81) years; 144 patients (27.9%) had acute brain ischemic lesions at neuroimaging. The proportion of patients with brain ischemic lesions did not vary according to the ABCD2 score. At follow-up, 4 patients with brain ischemic lesions (2.8%) and 21 patients without lesions (5.6%) reported the primary effectiveness outcome, which was similar between the groups before (p=0.178) and after matching (p=0.518). Conclusions: In our population, patients with transient ischemic symptoms and acute ischemic lesions at brain MRI had a risk of recurrent ischemic events similar to those without lesions. The risk of recurrent ischemic events was low in both groups.