ABSTRACT
Importance: Reperfusion therapy is the most effective treatment for acute ischemic stroke but remains underused in China. Objective: To evaluate the effect of a problem-oriented, culturally adapted, targeted quality improvement intervention on reperfusion therapy for patients with acute ischemic stroke in China. Design, Setting, and Participants: In this stepped-wedge cluster randomized clinical trial, patients from 16 secondary and 33 tertiary hospitals in China with acute ischemic stroke within 6 hours of symptom onset were consecutively recruited between July 1, 2018, and June 30, 2020. Interventions: Hospitals were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 sequences to receive the targeted quality improvement intervention (n = 5689), in which workflow reconstruction was promoted to reduce in-hospital reperfusion treatment delays, or usual care (n = 6443), in which conventional stroke care was left to the discretion of the stroke team. Main Outcomes and Measures: The primary outcome was the reperfusion therapy rate, a composite outcome of intravenous recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (IV rtPA) or endovascular thrombectomy (EVT) for eligible patients who arrived within 3.5 or 4.5 hours of symptom onset. Secondary outcomes were the IV rtPA administration rate among eligible patients who arrived within 3.5 hours of symptom onset, the EVT rate among eligible participants who arrived within 4.5 hours of symptom onset, the proportion of patients with door-to-needle time within 60 minutes, the proportion of patients with door-to-puncture time within 90 minutes, in-hospital mortality, and 3-month disability as measured by a modified Rankin Scale score greater than 2. Results: All 12â¯132 eligible patients (mean [SD] age, 66 [12.1] years; 7759 male [64.0%]) completed the trial. The reperfusion rate was 53.5% (3046 of 5689) for the eligible patients in the intervention period and 43.9% (2830 of 6443) in the control period. No significant improvement in primary outcomes was found for the intervention after adjusting for cluster, period, and imbalanced baseline covariates (adjusted risk difference [ARD], 5.5%; 95% CI, -8.0% to 19.0%; adjusted odds ratio [AOR], 1.26; 95% CI, 0.72-2.21) or for the secondary outcomes. However, significant improvements were found in secondary hospitals for reperfusion therapy (1081 of 1870 patients [57.8%] vs 945 of 2022 patients [42.9%]; ARD, 19.0%; 95% CI, 6.4%-31.6%; AOR, 2.24; 95% CI, 1.29-3.88), IV rtPA administration (1062 of 1826 patients [58.2%] vs 916 of 2170 patients [42.2%]; ARD, 20.3%; 95% CI, 7.4%-33.1%; AOR, 2.37; 95% CI, 1.34-4.19), and EVT (51 of 231 patients [22.1%] vs 37 of 259 patients [14.3%]; ARD, 13.6%; 95% CI, 1.0%-26.3%; AOR, 3.03; 95% CI, 1.11-8.25) in subgroup analyses. Conclusions and Relevance: In this stepped-wedge cluster randomized clinical trial of patients with acute ischemic stroke in China, the use of a targeted quality improvement intervention compared with usual care did not improve the reperfusion therapy rate. However, the intervention may be effective in secondary hospitals. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03578107.
Subject(s)
Ischemic Stroke , Stroke , Humans , Male , Aged , Ischemic Stroke/therapy , Tissue Plasminogen Activator/therapeutic use , Quality Improvement , ReperfusionABSTRACT
Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been validated to mediate the development of atherosclerosis (AS). In the present study, the molecular mechanisms and functions of lncRNA nuclear paraspeckle assembly transcript 1 (NEAT1) in the advancement of human aortic endothelial cells (HAECs) were investigated. The levels of lncRNANEAT1 and miR638 expression in clinical samples and cells were explored via quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. Colony formation and CCK8 assays were performed to determine the proliferative capacity of cells, and the apoptotic capacity of cells was analyzed on the basis of apoptotic cell proportion and caspase3 activity. Then, the proportion of cells and correlations among phosphoglycerate kinase 1 (PGK1), NEAT1, and miR638 were determined through RNA immunoprecipitation and luciferase assays and bioinformatics analysis. Moreover, the expression levels of Ki67, proliferating cell nuclear antigen, PGK1, Bax, Bcl2, (p)mTOR, (p)AKT, and ßcatenin were analyzed via western blot analysis. In the serum of patients with AS and HAECs induced by oxidized lowdensity lipoprotein (oxLDL), the expression level of miR638 was decreased, whereas that of NEAT1 was increased. After oxLDL therapy, NEAT1 knockdown suppressed HAEC proliferation and stimulated HAEC apoptosis, which could be reversed by the miR638 inhibitor. NEAT1 inhibited miR638 expression through direct mutual action. The following mechanical investigations revealed that PGK1 was a miR638 target, whose expression was increased by NEAT1, a competing endogenous RNA of miR638. Additionally, the miR638 inhibitor contributed to proliferation and suppressed apoptosis through the activation of the AKT/mTOR signaling pathway in oxLDLinduced HAECs. NEAT1 adjusted the AKT/mTOR signaling pathway via miR638 in oxLDLinduced HAECs to accelerate their proliferation and impede their apoptosis. This result revealed that NEAT1 may be valuable in the treatment of AS.