Revacept works in patients with internal carotid artery stenosis

Treatment with revacept 120 mg appears to be beneficial in the treatment of patients with symptomatic internal carotid artery (ICA) stenosis, according to a study.

The international, multicentre, double-blind study randomized 160 patients to receive placebo, 40 mg or 120 mg revacept in addition to guideline-conforming antiplatelet therapy. Treatment was administered as a single infusion over 20 minutes.

Researchers evaluated the treatment effect in terms of the main clinical outcome, which was the combined safety and efficacy endpoint of any stroke or death, transient ischaemic attack, myocardial infarction, coronary intervention, and bleeding complications during follow-up. They also assessed the number of new ischaemic lesions on diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging after treatment initiation as an exploratory efficacy endpoint.

Of the randomized patients, 158 (mean age 68 years, 24 percent female) received the study medication (51 patients in the placebo, 54 patients in the 40-mg revacept, and 53 patients in the 120-mg revacept group).

Over a follow-up of 11.2 months, a total of 1.16, 1.05, and 0.63 new diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging lesions per patient were recorded in the placebo, 40-mg, and 120-mg revacept groups, respectively. The differences were not statistically significant.

Compared with placebo, revacept 120 mg produced a significant reduction in the combined safety and efficacy endpoint during the study period (hazard ratio [HR], 0.46, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.21–0.99; p=0.047). This benefit was not observed with 40 mg revacept (HR, 0.72, 95 percent CI, 0.37–1.42; p=0.343).