Study of Antiplatelet Therapy for Intracranial Aneurysm Stent-assisted Coiling

Participating Centers : 10 China high neurointervention volume (>200) centers Rationale: Clopidogrel (75 mg/day), in combination with aspirin (100 mg/day), is currently the antiplatelet treatment of choice for prevention of stent thrombosis, and clinical trials have shown that, in high-risk patients, prolonged dual antiplatelet treatment is more effective than aspirin alone in preventing major thromboembolic events. However, despite the use of clopidogrel, a considerable number of patients continue to have thromboembolic events. Numerous in VITRO studies have shown that individual responsiveness to clopidogrel but also to aspirin is not uniform in all patients and is subject to inter- and intraindividual variability. The recent possibility of bedside monitoring of oral antiplatelet therapy offers the unique opportunity of tailoring antiplatelet therapy. However, the relevance of such strategy has never been evaluated in a randomized prospective adequately powered study of intracranial aneurysm patients. Late state stent thrombosis and after interruption of OAT, is another important safety issue raising the questions of the modalities of interruption of dual OAT within six months according to the most recent updated recommendations. When is the best interruption of dual OAT? Our first hypothesis is that a strategy of dose adjustment of OAT based on biological monitoring reduces the rate of the combined ischemic endpoints of death, stent thrombosis and stroke as compared to a conventional strategy (local practice without monitoring) in patients scheduled for intracranial stent implantation and followed up for six months. Our second hypothesis is that interruption of clopidogrel after 1.5 months of dual OAT is associated with a higher rate of the same combined ischemic endpoints as compared with patients in whom dual OAT is maintained for 3 months follow-up.

Objectives: 1) To demonstrate the superiority of the strategy of monitoring with dose adjustment in suboptimal responders (Monitoring Arm) as compared to a more conventional strategy (Conventional Arm) with fixed dose regimen of both oral antiplatelet agents in all patients as defined by the international guidelines to reduce the primary endpoint evaluated one year after DES implantation. 2) to demonstrate the superiority of a strategy of pursuit of a dual OAT beyond 3 months(Pursuit Arm) as compared to a strategy of interruption for 1.5 months(Interruption Arm).

Duration of the participation : from 18 up to 30 months according to the time delay from study start to randomization. No participants will be excluded from the study at the exception of consent withdrawal. However, participants who have not been randomized for interruption or continuation of DAPT at the 6 month follow up visit will terminate the study

Number of patients: 1856 patients. This number was obtained for the demonstration of the superiority of the strategy of monitoring (Monitoring Arm) over the conventional strategy (Conventional Arm) to reduce the primary endpoint by 33% (relative risk reduction).

Expected results: The ARCTIC study will provide answers to two major clinical challenges. It will also give a unique opportunity to assess the prevalence and the associated risk factors of suboptimal answers to OAT, but also to improve a suboptimal biological response. Finally, the economic impact of both strategies of monitoring and of interruption will be evaluated.