The aim of our work was to study the role of DAAP, in comparison with aspirin alone, in improving motor deficit and in preventing ischemic recurrence, while taking into account the possible hemorrhagic risk.
Even though the benefit of aspirin is well known to prevent recurrence of thrombotic events after any transient ischemic attack (TIA) or ischemic stroke, the role of dual anti-platelet aggregation (DAAP) is not definitively established and remains a controversial subject.
408 patients were included in this study. The mean age was 62.49 years (≥ 40) and 64,2% were males. DAAP was administered in 111 patients (27.2%), among them 17.1% received the initial doses of 300mg of Clopidogrel. Compared to non-DAAP group: 279 (72.8%). The median time from the onset of the admission was 18,8 hours.
NIHSS score at discharge was ≤ 2 in 60,2% in the DAAP group vs 38% of patients in the non-DAAP group (p=0,034). Ischemic recurrence occurred in 3% of patients in the clopidogrel-aspirin group and in 4% in the aspirin alone group (p=0,04). There was no significant difference about the occurrence of any bleeding event (0,9% vs 2,6% p=0,173) nor Vascular Death.
Our results are consistent with those of the literature about the superiority of dual anti-platelet aggregation (DAAP) in minor strokes.