A recent New England Journal of Medicine study assesses whether early blood-pressure control within ambulances leads to favorable clinical outcomes among patients with undifferentiated acute stroke. Study: Intensive Ambulance-Delivered Blood-Pressure Reduction in Hyperacute Stroke . Image Credit: Jaromir Chalabala / Shutterstock.
com Intensive treatment to lower blood pressure levels is often clinically beneficial in patients with acute intracerebral hemorrhage. However, trials on reducing blood pressure alone have yielded inconclusive results, which could be due to variations in trial designs, populations, or interventions. Clinical outcomes may be better if blood pressure reduction interventions are started as early as possible; however, this can be complicated in patients with acute ischemic stroke.
Previously, two trials reported similar results on the efficacy and safety of administering pre-hospital blood pressure reduction interventions within hours of an acute stroke. In patients with intracerebral hemorrhage, worse outcomes were noted in those who received the glyceryl trinitrate patch relative to those who received a sham patch. The current study reports on the Intensive Ambulance-Delivered Blood Pressure Reduction in Hyper-Acute Stroke Trial (INTERACT) 4 results.
The aim of INTERACT 4 was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of ambulance initiation of intravenous antihypertensive treatment within two hours of an acute stroke. The starting group comprised ambulance-tr.