Rationale and Study Design for a Single-Arm Phase IIa Study Investigating Feasibility of Preventing Ischemic Cerebrovascular Events in High-Risk Patients with Acute Non-disabling Ischemic Cerebrovascular Events Using Remote Ischemic Conditioning.

BACKGROUND: Acute minor ischemic stroke (AMIS) or transient ischemic attack (TIA) is a common cerebrovascular event with a considerable high recurrence. Prior research demonstrated the effectiveness of regular long-term remote ischemic conditioning (RIC) in secondary stroke prevention in patients with intracranial stenosis. We hypothesized that RIC can serve as an effective adjunctive therapy to pharmacotherapy in preventing ischemic events in patients with AMIS/TIA. This study aimed to investigate the feasibility, safety, and preliminary efficacy of daily RIC in inhibiting cerebrovascular/cardiovascular events after AMIS/TIA. METHODS: This is a single-arm, open-label, multicenter Phase IIa futility study with a sample size of 165. Patients with AMIS/TIA receive RIC as an additional therapy to secondary stroke prevention regimen. RIC consists of five cycles of 5-min inflation (200 mmHg) and 5-min deflation of cuffs on bilateral upper limbs twice a day for 90 days. The antiplatelet strategy is based on individual physician's best practice: aspirin alone, clopidogrel alone, or combination of aspirin and clopidogrel. We will assess the recurrence rate of ischemic stroke/TIA within 3 months as the primary outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: The data gathered from the study will be used to determine whether a further large-scale, multicenter randomized controlled Phase II trial is warranted in patients with AMIS/TIA. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03004820; https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03004820.

[Evaluation of two methods for counting residual white blood cells in thrombocytaphoresis concentrates].

To evaluate flow-cytometry and Nageotte method for counting residual WBC in thrombocytaphoresis concentrates, their accuracies were determined by dilution studies separately; the repeatability was determined by measuring the interassay coefficient of variation for 14 replicates of a sample with known leukocyte concentration. 102 samples of leukocyte-depleted thrombocytaphoresis concentrates were detected by the above mentioned two methods, and the results were compared each other. The results showed that no difference was observed between two methods over a range of leukocyte concentrations from 0.8 to 10 WBC/microl (P > 0.05). In conclusion, flow-cytometry and Nageotte methods can be used for quality control of WBC-reduced blood components.