The safety and efficacy of tirofiban on prevention of vascular reocclusion following mechanical thrombectomy for in situ thrombosis

Objective To evaluate the safety and efficacy of low-dose platelet glycoprotein Ⅱb/Ⅲa antagonist tirofiban on preventing reocclusion during mechanical thrombectomy (MT) for in situ thrombosis(IST). Methods It is a retrospective cohort study, and 112 patients treated with MT, from the Nanjing Prospective Stroke Registration, were enrolled from February 2014 to October 2014. During MT, if angiography after a successful recanalization(defined as Thrombolysis In Cerebral Infarction(TICI) 2b/3) showed residual stenosis at the site of occlusion, additional angiographies were made every 10 min for 30 min. Then, if angiography displayed reocclusion in the corresponding vessels, a repeat recanalization was operated, followed by a low dose intra-arterial tirofiban infusion. MRA or CT angiography (CTA) was implemented to identify intracranial atherosclerosis (ICAS) 5-7 days after the procedure. The patients with confirmed ICAS were enrolled in the IST group. The rest were enrolled in the non-in situ thrombosis (NIST) group. Results A total of 80 patients with acute cerebral infarction were enrolled in the study. IST rate was 32.5%(26/80). All IST patients were confirmed ICAS by follow-up vascular imaging. Instant reocclusion after successful recanalization was significantly more common in the IST group(57.7%(15/26) vs 3.7%(2/54); χ2=30.568, P=0.000) than in the NIST group. In the case of the efficacy and safety of low-dose intra-arterial tirofiban infusion, 82.6%(19/23) of the reocclusion patients eventually accomplished TICI 2b/3, the rest 17.4%(4/23) of the cases were intractable to the procedure and needed rescue stent implantation. The modified Rankin Scale scores in patients infusing tirofiban were superior to the unused patients in 90 days. There was no patient with symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage after the procedure. Conclusions Patients with IST have higher cerebrovascular reocclusion rate during MT. After MT, low-dose intra-arterial tirofiban infusion may prevent reocclusion, and the prognosis is better. Key words: Stroke; Platelet membrane glycoproteins; Thrombosis; Thrombectomy