Apixaban for Secondary Stroke Prevention: Coexistant Cerebral Atherosclerosis May Increase Recurrent Strokes.

"Disclosure: This study was funded by Pfizer Inc. and Bristol Myers Squibb and conducted by Bristol Myers Squibb Korea.: Jong S. Kim reports receiving grants from Dong-A, Pfizer, Servier, Daiichi-Sankyo, and Shin-Poong outside of the submitted work. Keun-Sik Hong reports receiving grants from Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) Korea Ltd. during the conduct of the study, grants from BMS Korea, Boryung Pharmaceutical, and Hanmi Pharm outside of the submitted work, and lecture honoraria from BMS Korea and Daiichi Sankyo Korea outside of the submitted work. Hyeju Yi is an employee of Bristol Myers Squibb, Korea. The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare."

"Disclosure: This study was funded by Pfizer Inc. and Bristol Myers Squibb and conducted by Bristol Myers Squibb Korea.: Jong S. Kim reports receiving grants from Dong-A, Pfizer, Servier, Daiichi-Sankyo, and Shin-Poong outside of the submitted work. Keun-Sik Hong reports receiving grants from Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) Korea Ltd. during the conduct of the study, grants from BMS Korea, Boryung Pharmaceutical, and Hanmi Pharm outside of the submitted work, and lecture honoraria from BMS Korea and Daiichi Sankyo Korea outside of the submitted work. Hyeju Yi is an employee of Bristol Myers Squibb, Korea. The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare."

"Most patients were treated based on the approved doses of apixaban at 2.5 or 5 mg orally BID. However, off-label dosing was allowed based on clinical judgment. Treatment could be discontinued at any time at the discretion of the investigator. The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, the International Society for Pharmacoepidemiology Guidelines for Good Pharmacoepidemiology Practices, and other regulatory requirements. Approval was granted at individual sites by local ethics committees, independent review committees, regulatory authorities, and/or other government bodies. All subjects provided written consent prior to enrollment. The trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov (Clinical trial registration: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01885598;Unique identifier: NCT01885598). Methods: This was a sub-analysis of stroke patients with AF enrolled in a prospective, open-label, multicenter, post-marketing surveillance study in South Korea, who were treated with apixaban and underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) (Clinical trial registration: NCT01885598). "