[The clinical effect of combination therapy with edaravone and sodium ozagrel for acute cerebral infarction]

Sodium ozagrel (ozagrel), a selective thromboxane A2 synthetase inhibitor, has been used for the treatment of various types of acute ischemic stroke, except cardioembolic stroke. Recently, edaravone, a novel free radical scavenger, has been approved for the treatment of acute ischemic stroke within 24 hours after onset. Since these two drugs differ in mode of action, we hypothesized that combination of both drugs would yield further improvement of the outcome of patients with acute ischemic stroke. The clinical efficacy of combination therapy with edaravone and ozagrel for acute ischemic stroke was studied retrospectively, and compared with that of ozagrel alone. A total of 62 patients who suffered acute ischemic stroke within 24 hours after onset during the 10-month period from June 2001 to March 2002, were treated with both edaravone and ozagrel (E-O group), while 76 patients during August 2000 to May 2001, were treated with ozagrel alone (O group). The rate of modified Rankin Scale (MRS) 0 and 1 at discharge in the total ischemic stroke and atherothrombotic stroke, was significantly higher in the E-O group than in the O group. The improvement in MRS also differed between E-O group and O group in total. The difference was significant in patients with atherothrombotic stroke but not in those with lacunar stroke. These results indicate that combination therapy with edaravone and ozagrel is more effective than mono-therapy with ozagrel for the treatment of acute ischemic, especially of atherothrombotic stroke.