Cilostazol, a phosphodiesterase 3 (PDE3) inhibitor, fared about as well as aspirin when used to decrease cardiovascular events in ischemic stroke patients with leaky blood vessels in the brain, reports MedPage Today.
Overall, cilostazol met criteria for non-inferiority in terms of the efficacy co-primary outcome of composite cardiovascular events, with 63 occurrences in the cilostazol group and 80 in the aspirin group (HR 0.80, 95% CI 0.60-1.05, P=0.004 for non-inferiority).
But it didn’t prove non-inferior for the safety co-primary endpoint of cerebral hemorrhage. While the incidence rate was lower by half with cilostazol, the difference wasn’t significant because there were relatively few events (0.61% versus 1.20% per person-year, P=0.09).
Neither outcome met criteria for superiority to aspirin.
Read more at www.medpagetoday.com
