Clinical Research Directory

Registry of Endovascular Treatment for Vertebrobasilar Dissecting Aneurysms in China

The incidence of vertebrobasilar dissecting aneurysms (VBDAs) is about 1/100,000\~1.5/100,000, and it is one of the most important causes of stroke in young and middle-aged people. In recent years, with the development of medical imaging technology, the detection rate of this disease has been increasing year by year. The natural prognosis of VBDAs is complex and varied, with uncertainty: (1) it may have a benign course, and the imaging follow-up may show that the diseased vessels are repaired and improved or remain stable for a long period of time; (2) it may present with ischemic stroke caused by hemodynamic alteration or thromboembolism, which may result in severe neurological impairment; (3) it may occur as a result of rupture of aneurysms leading to subarachnoid hemorrhage, endangering the patient's life; (4) progressive enlargement of VBDAs causing occupying effects, which may be manifested as headache in mild cases, or hemiplegia of limbs and choking on drinking water in severe cases. Up to now, there is a lack of objective and uniform diagnostic and therapeutic guidelines for the natural regression of VBDAs and the benefits of surgery, and the treatment is mostly empirical, which makes it difficult to accurately determine the clinical prognosis of VBDAs and formulate appropriate treatment strategies. Therefore, against the above background, we designed the present study. This study was a multicenter, prospective, registry study. We enrolled patients with unruptured VBDAs who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria, and a multi-disciplinary team formulated the treatment modalities for the patients, which were categorized into the conservative observation group, the stent-assisted coiling group, and the flow diverter group. The aim of our study was to investigate the effects of different treatment modalities on the prognosis of patients with VBDAs, as well as to stratify the risk factors of the patients, to explore the individualized treatment modalities of the patients, and to improve the diagnosis and treatment of this clinically refractory cerebrovascular disease.

Metformin in Patients With Unruptured Vertebrobasilar Dissecting Aneurysms (METTLE)

Vertebrobasilar dissecting aneurysms (VBDAs) are one of the most important causes of stroke in young and middle-aged people, and the natural history of VBDAs is complex and varied, often leading to high rates of disability and mortality. For some patients with VBDAs who are not suitable for surgical entrapment and intervention, pharmacologic therapy may be used to slow the progression of VBDAs. Metformin (MET) has been shown to act as an anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidative stress and improve vascular endothelial function by inhibiting smooth muscle cell phenotypic transformation, proliferation, migration and apoptosis, thereby reducing the incidence of intracranial aneurysms and rupture rates, and MET may be a suitable candidate. Inflammatory response plays an important role in the occurrence, development and rupture of VBDAs. Inflammatory response in the aneurysm wall can cause endothelial and smooth muscle cell injury and apoptosis, leading to degenerative changes in the vessel wall and increasing the risk of rupture of VBDAs. High-resolution magnetic resonance vessel wall imaging (HR-VWI), which can clearly show the structure of the vessel wall and reflect the active degree of inflammatory reaction in the aneurysm wall, has been widely used in the assessment of intracranial aneurysm instability. In this study, we propose to conduct a multicenter, prospective, randomized study to investigate whether MET reduces the degree of aneurysm wall inflammatory response in VBDAs by performing HR-VWI scans in patients with VBDAs and obtaining quantitative parameters reflecting the inflammatory response of the aneurysm wall.