Meta-Analysis
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Jan 14, 2022; 10(2): 585-593
Published online Jan 14, 2022. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i2.585
Efficacy and safety of argatroban in treatment of acute ischemic stroke: A meta-analysis
Bin Lv, Fang-Fang Guo, Jia-Cai Lin, Feng Jing
Bin Lv, Feng Jing, Department of Neurology, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100853, China
Fang-Fang Guo, Health Management Institute, The Second Medical Center & National Clinical Research Center for Geriatric Diseases, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100853, China
Jia-Cai Lin, Department of Neurology, Hainan Hospital of Chinese PLA General Hospital, Sanya 572022, Hainan Province, China
Author contributions: Lv B and Guo FF contributed equally to this work; Lv B and Guo FF searched the related articles, analyzed the data, and wrote the manuscript; Lin JC analyzed and interpreted the data; Jing F conceived and designed this study, and made critical revision to the manuscript; all the authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors deny any conflict of interest for this article.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The authors have read the PRISMA 2009 Checklist, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the PRISMA 2009 Checklist.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Feng Jing, MD, Doctor, Department of Neurology, Chinese PLA General Hospital, No. 28 Fuxing Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100853, China. jfsuccess@126.com
Received: June 18, 2021
Peer-review started: June 18, 2021
First decision: September 28, 2021
Revised: October 14, 2021
Accepted: December 2, 2021
Article in press: December 2, 2021
Published online: January 14, 2022
Processing time: 207 Days and 18.7 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

Acute ischemic stroke (AIS) has been a global health challenge. And new treatments have been explored. Argatroban as a novel direct thrombin inhibitor has been used in treating AIS. However, the exact efficiency and safety remain unclear.

Research motivation

The drug safety of argatroban has been proved by many studies. However, the results of present studies on evaluating curative effect of argatroban on AIS were quite controversial, which has puzzled us in confirming the role of argatroban in AIS treatment. Therefore, it is necessary to do such an analysis to further evaluate the efficiency and safety of argatroban in treating AIS.

Research objectives

The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficiency and safety of argatroban in treating AIS by extracting available data from existing studies.

Research methods

We have searched database PubMed, Embase, Science, Medline, and Cochrane Library to retrieve all of the studies associated with argatroban and AIS. Only randomized controlled clinical studies were screened for this review. Meta-analysis methodology was used and the standard mean difference values and 95% confidence intervals were estimated to get final results.

Research results

Only four studies that met the criteria were included in our review, which contained a total of 354 cases with 213 cases in the argatroban group and 141 in the control group. The overall analysis showed that patients with AIS did not improve more with argatroban treatment. And argatroban did not increase the bleeding risk in AIS patients.

Research conclusions

Our study that integrated the existing data suggested that patients with AIS might not benefit more from argatroban and combination therapy with argatroban will not increase bleeding tendency.

Research perspectives

More high-quality studies are needed for further evaluation of the efficacy and safety of argatroban in treating AIS.