Stroke clinical trials at UCLA

Primary Aim: To determine if apixaban is superior to aspirin for prevention of the composite outcome of any stroke (hemorrhagic or ischemic) or death from any cause in patients with recent ICH and atrial fibrillation (AF). Secondary Aim: To determine if apixaban, compared with aspirin, results in better functional outcomes as measured by the modified Rankin Scale.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether treatment of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) with positive airway pressure starting shortly after acute ischemic stroke (1) reduces recurrent stroke, acute coronary syndrome, and all-cause mortality 6 months after the event, and (2) improves stroke outcomes at 3 months in patients who experienced an ischemic stroke.

Researchers are looking for a better way to prevent an ischemic stroke which occurs when a blood clot travelled to the brain in people who within the last 72 hours had: - an acute stroke due to a blood clot that formed outside the heart (acute non-cardioembolic ischemic stroke), or - TIA/mini-stroke with a high risk of turning into a stroke (high-risk transient ischemic attack), and who are planned to receive standard of care therapy. Acute ischemic strokes or TIA/mini-stroke result from a blocked or reduced blood flow to a part of the brain. They are caused by blood clots that travel to the brain and block the vessels that supply it. If these blood clots form elsewhere than in the heart, the stroke is called non-cardioembolic. People who already had a non-cardioembolic stroke are more likely to have another stroke. This is why they are treated preventively with an antiplatelet therapy, the current standard of care. Antiplatelet medicines prevent platelets, components of blood clotting, from clumping together. Anticoagulants are another type of medicine that prevents blood clots from forming by interfering with a process known as coagulation (or blood clotting). The study treatment asundexian is a new type of anticoagulant currently under development to provide further treatment options. Asundexian aims to further improve the standard of care without increasing the risk of bleeding. The main purpose of this study is to learn whether asundexian works better than placebo at reducing ischemic strokes in participants who recently had a non-cardioembolic ischemic stroke or TIA/mini-stroke when given in addition to standard antiplatelet therapy. A placebo is a treatment that looks like a medicine but does not have any medicine in it. Another aim is to compare the occurrence of major bleeding events during the study between the asundexian and the placebo group. Major bleedings have a serious or even life-threatening impact on a person's health. Dependent on the treatment group, the participants will either take asundexian or placebo once a day for at least 3 months up to 31 months. Approximately every 3 months during the treatment period, either a phone call or a visit to the study site is scheduled on an alternating basis. In addition, one visit before and up to two visits after the treatment period are planned. During the study, the study team will: - Check vital signs such as blood pressure and heart rate - Examine the participants' heart health using an electrocardiogram (ECG) - Take blood samples - Ask the participants questions about how they are feeling and what adverse events they are having. An adverse event is any medical problem that a participant has during a study. Doctors keep track of all adverse events that happen in studies, even if they do not think the adverse events might be related to the study treatments. In addition, the participants will be asked to complete a questionnaire on quality of life at certain time points during the study.

The objective of the rFVIIa for Acute Hemorrhagic Stroke Administered at Earliest Time (FASTEST) Trial is to establish the first treatment for acute spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) within a time window and subgroup of patients that is most likely to benefit. The central hypothesis is that rFVIIa, administered within 120 minutes from stroke onset with an identified subgroup of patients most likely to benefit, will improve outcomes at 180 days as measured by the Modified Rankin Score (mRS) and decrease ongoing bleeding as compared to standard therapy.

SEACOAST 1 is a prospective, randomized, blinded endpoint trial comparing collateral vigor and clinical outcomes, with different forms of GA in patients with acute ischemic stroke due to anterior circulation large vessel occlusion (LVO) undergoing mechanical thrombectomy. The study compares GA with normocarbia (GAN) versus GA with mild hypercarbia (GAH), with a primary outcome of collateral robustness at measured at catheter angiography and clinical efficacy as secondary outcome. It is anticipated that the SEACOAST 1 will be followed by a larger, pivotal trial, SEACOAST 2, with primary clinical endpoints, in which the best method of GA identified in SEACOAST 1 is compared with the alternative strategy of anesthesia care (MAC) with minimal or no sedation. The current study focuses uppn SEACOAST 1, which is to be conducted in University of California, Los Angeles Ronald Reagan Medical Center and Santa Monica Medical Center. All acute stroke patients who arrive to one of these two stroke centers and are deemed eligible for thrombectomy will be considered for the proposed study. Physician-investigators will determine study eligibility. Informed consent to participate in the study will be obtained from legally authorized representatives or competent patients. For non-competent patients without on-scene legally authorize representatives, the consent process will utilize enrollment in emergency circumstances with exemption of informed consent (EFIC).

The goal of this clinical trial is to assess the safety and feasibility of providing extra doses of rehabilitation therapy for persons with a recent stroke, traumatic brain injury (TBI) and/or spinal cord injury (SCI). The therapy treatment targets to improve arm function by introducing telerehabilitation to the bedside of participants during the inpatient rehab admission period. Participants will use a newly developed functional training system (HandyMotion) to access therapy treatment program directly from their hospital room. HandyMotion is a sensor-based training system that can connect to the TV set in the hospital room, enabling patients to access their therapy training program to practice rehab-oriented games and exercises ad libitum, at any time of the day.

The overall goal of the DISCOVERY study is to better understand what factors contribute to changes in cognitive (i.e., thinking and memory) abilities in patients who experienced a stroke. The purpose of the study is to help doctors identify patients at risk for dementia (decline in memory, thinking and other mental abilities that significantly affects daily functioning) after their stroke so that future treatments may be developed to improve outcomes in stroke patients. For this study, a "stroke" is defined as either (1) an acute ischemic stroke (AIS, or blood clot in the brain), (2) an intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH, or bleeding in the brain), (3) or an aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH, or bleeding around the brain caused by an abnormal bulge in a blood vessel that bursts). The investigators hypothesize that: 1. The size, type and location of the stroke play an important role in recovery of thinking and memory abilities after stroke, and pre-existing indicators of brain health further determine the extent of this recovery. 2. Specific stroke events occurring in individuals with underlying genetic or biological risk factors can cause further declines in brain heath, leading to changes in thinking and memory abilities after stroke. 3. Studying thinking and memory alongside brain imaging and blood samples in patients who have had a stroke allows for earlier identification of declining brain health and development of individualized treatment plans to improve patient outcomes in the future.