Clinical trials

This study is designed to evaluate whether cilostazol, an antiplatelet medication, is more effective and safer than aspirin or clopidogrel in preventing recurrent strokes and slowing disease progression in patients with cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD). Cerebral small vessel disease is a common cause of lacunar stroke, cognitive decline, and long-term disability. Currently, aspirin and clopidogrel are widely used to prevent recurrent ischemic events, but their effectiveness in CSVD remains uncertain. Cilostazol has shown potential benefits in improving cerebral blood flow, protecting blood vessel walls, and reducing the risk of bleeding compared with traditional antiplatelet drugs. In this randomized controlled trial, participants diagnosed with CSVD and recent lacunar stroke will be randomly assigned to receive cilostazol, aspirin, or clopidogrel. The main outcomes to be evaluated include the rate of recurrent ischemic stroke, progression of cognitive and functional impairment, MRI markers of CSVD (such as white matter hyperintensity, lacunes, microbleeds, and small infarcts), and safety outcomes including bleeding events. The investigators hypothesize that cilostazol will reduce the risk of recurrent stroke and slow disease progression more effectively than aspirin or clopidogrel, with a comparable or lower risk of bleeding. By comparing these three antiplatelet drugs in a rigorous, multicenter randomized controlled trial, this study will provide important clinical evidence to guide personalized treatment strategies for patients with CSVD. The results are expected to improve long-term outcomes, reduce disability, and enhance the quality of life for stroke survivors.

Hypertension is a common problem, affecting \>1.1 billion people worldwide. Unfortunately, fewer than one in five treated patients with hypertension have their blood pressure (BP) under control. The increasing number of people with uncontrolled BP despite the use of three or more antihypertensive agents at optimal or maximally tolerated doses, with one of those agents preferably being a diuretic has been described as the resistant hypertension (RH). Achieving BP control is essential because patients with hypertension who have uncontrolled BP have significantly higher rates of all-cause, cardiovascular, heart disease and cerebrovascular disease mortality compared to normotensive individuals, whereas mortality risk in patients with well-controlled BP does not differ from that in normotensive individuals. There are a number of potential factors that contribute to the suboptimal control of hypertension, including medication non-adherence and prescribing inertia. This highlights the limitations of purely pharmacological approaches for the effective management of hypertension. In fact, the activation of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) and sympatho-adrenomedullary system play a pathogenic role in triggering and sustaining RH. Superselective adrenal arterial embolization (SAAE) is a catheter-based percutaneous transluminal procedure which selectively injects ethanol into adrenal artery to ablate part of the adrenal gland for suppression of excessive aldosterone and catecholamines. Over the last decade, unilateral SAAE has emerged as a potential treatment option for patients with primary aldosteronism. Whether this approach can be extrapolated to patients with RH is unclear. We thus set out to perform a randomized trial to compare the safety and efficacy of bilateral SAAE with antihypertensive medications in treating RH.

To explore the relationship between perioperative blood pressure and catecholamine concentrations in adrenal venous blood and peripheral venous blood in hypertensive patients with primary aldosteronism (PA) who underwent percutaneous selective adrenal artery embolization (SAAE). In order to elucidate the related phenomena and possible mechanisms of blood pressure fluctuations caused by SAAE treatment in hypertensive patients with PA.