Eligibility

Q: If the patient is on antiplatelet medicine are they eligible for the trial? A: Concurrent use of antiplatelet medicine is fine, the patient will still be eligible for the trial.

Q: Are there any modified Rankin score cut-offs for including/excluding patients? A: There are no mRS restrictions for OPTIMAS.

Q: How do I calculate creatinine clearance to check for severe renal impairment? A: Please use the Cockcroft & Gault formula. Please note, use ideal body weight if obese (BMI >30) and adjusted bodyweight if morbidly obese (BMI >40) Calculator available: https://www.mdcalc.com/creatinine-clearance-cockcroft-gault-equation

Q: We don’t routinely collect INR for non-warfarin treated patients? What should we do? A: INR is required to check for eligibility as well as providing important data for the study. If you routinely collect Prothrombin time (PT), this can be converted to INR. Please contact your labs for the formula as this may vary slightly between sites.

Q: Can we recruit eligible patients from the ward, even when their neurological information may not be all available on the A&E admission notes? Can we also use information that is next available? A: Yes these patients are eligible. You need to ensure this information is collected when next available

Q: If a patient had stroke symptoms for less than 24 hours, so would otherwise be considered a TIA, but has a positive MRI, would they be considered a stroke from a study perspective? A: Recurrent ischaemic stroke: a focal neurological deficit of acute onset, lasting at least 24 hours, judged by the treating clinician to have no other likely cause than cerebral infarction, with or without radiological or pathological supporting evidence, but unrelated to any persistent or delayed effects of the qualifying stroke. Only syndromes lasting ≥24 hours should be included.

Q: I don’t have the exact time of when the patient had the stroke, but I do have the last know date/time. Is that ok? A: The last known date and time can be used as the onset of stroke.

Q: For OPTIMAS patients is it acceptable to use their admission ECG for screening even if this is not the day of screening.  Or, do you want a trial specific ECG recorded on the day of screening? A: Any ECG performed during the admission is fine.