Symptomatic Intracranial Atherosclerosis: Natural History of Medical Management Beyond the Hyperacute Stage of Ischemic Stroke in the Post

Abstract Background: A major cause of ischemic stroke (IS) worldwide, especially in Asia, is intracranial atherosclerotic stenosis (ICAS), which is also associated with the high risk of recurrent stroke. Objective: The aim of our study was to determine the natural history of symptomatic ICAS ischemic stroke (ICAS IS) patients. Materials and Methods: We collected data on acute ICAS IS patients beyond the hyperacute IS phase to determine stroke recurrence and mortality at a tertiary care neurology hospital. Data were collected on basic demographics and traditional risk factors such as hypertension, coronary artery disease, diabetes mellitus, tobacco abuse, and hyperlipidemia, and statistical analysis was done. The primary endpoint was to measure the unfavorable outcome as defined by recurrent stroke or death from any cause. Results: The mean follow-up time for the total 87 patients was 24.5 months. Nine patients (10.3%) had an unfavorable outcome in the follow-up period; 2 (2.3%) of them had recurrent IS. Age was a predictor of the unfavorable outcome (P = .0025), whereas hyperlipidemia was present more in patients with the favorable outcome (P = .033). There was a tendency for patients with poor outcomes to have a higher National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale at their onset of stroke. Conclusions: Aggressive medical treatment was associated with a relatively low risk of recurrent stroke in our ICAS IS population. This study provides groundwork for larger studies that can take into account clinical and newer imaging techniques to improve secondary prevention in ICAS IS patients