Clinical trial NCT02190500: BEnefits of Stroke Treatment Delivered Using a Mobile Stroke Unit
Official title: BEnefits of Stroke Treatment Delivered Using a Mobile Stroke Unit Compared to Standard Management by Emergency Medical Services:The BEST-MSU Study
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: UNKNOWN
Phase: PHASE2
PHASE3
Conditions: Acute Ischemic Stroke
Keywords: stroke
tpa
emergency medical service
ems
mobile
ct scan
Lead sponsor: Memorial Hermann Health System
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: The University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston
name: Baylor College of Medicine
name: CHI St. Luke's Health, Texas
name: City of Houston Fire Department
name: The Methodist Hospital Research Institute
name: West University Fire Department
name: City of Bellaire Fire Department
name: Ben Taub Hospital
name: Harris Health
name: Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute
First posted: 2014-07-15
Enrollment: 1038
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: NON_RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: TREATMENT

Brief summary: The primary goal of this project is to carry out a trial comparing pre-hospital diagnosis and treatment of patients with stroke symptoms using a Mobile Stroke Unit (MSU) with subsequent transfer to a Comprehensive Stroke Center (CSC) Emergency Department (ED) for further management, to standard pre-hospital triage and transport by Emergency Medical Services (EMS) to a CSC ED for evaluation and treatment (Standard Management-SM).

Detailed description: There are many ways that use of a MSU might prove valuable in stroke patients, but we will focus on acute ischemic stroke (AIS) and treatment with IV tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) within 4.5 hours of symptom onset since that is the most evidence based effective emergency treatment for the most prevalent stroke diagnosis. We hypothesize that the MSU pathway will result in an overall shift towards earlier evaluation and treatment, particularly into the first hour after symptom onset, leading to substantially better outcome. We also hypothesize that as a result of improved clinical outcomes resulting from earlier treatment, the costs of a MSU program will be offset by a reduction in the costs of long term stroke care and increase in quality adjusted life years, thereby supporting more widespread use of this technology. To make MSU deployment more practical, we will confirm that a Vascular Neurologist (VN) on board the MSU can be replaced by a remote VN connected to the MSU by telemedicine (TM) thereby reducing manpower requirements and costs.

The successful completion of this project will provide data on important outcomes and costs associated with the use of MSU vs SM in the United States (U.S.) that will help determine the value of integrating MSUs into the pre-hospital environment in this country. Successfully addressing our three Specific Aims (time saved/ complications encountered, utility of TM, and cost effectiveness) will provide critical information that will be needed to determine if and how a subsequent more definitive study should be conducted. We anticipate that emanating from this exploratory study would be a larger multicenter trial carried out in both urban and rural U.S. pre-hospital environments, with treatment orchestrated via TM, and having sufficient power to determine a difference in long term outcome and costs between patients managed on the two pathways, following a study design that will be tested in this exploratory trial. The present study, therefore, is the necessary first step in a process which may dramatically modify the way that acute stroke patients are managed in the U.S.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Last seen normal within 4hr 30 min of symptom onset
* History and physical/neurological examination consistent with acute stroke
* No tPA exclusions per guidelines, prior to CT scan or baseline labs
* Informed consent obtained from patient (if competent) or legal representative.

Exclusion Criteria:

-None

Primary outcomes:
measure: Utility-weighted modified Rankin Scale (uw-mRS) from baseline to 90 days
timeFrame: 90 days (+/- 10 days) from date of enrollment
measure: Agreement between on scene Vascular Neurologist vs. Remote (Telemedicine) Vascular Neurologist
timeFrame: up to 4.5 hours from symptom onset
measure: Cost Effectiveness (N.B. The BEST-MSU study including measurement of heatlhcare utilization is funded by PCORI. The cost-effectiveness measures are not covered by PCORI funding and will be reported separately)
timeFrame: up to 1 year from date of enrollment
Secondary outcomes:
measure: 90 day Modified Rankin Score
timeFrame: 90 days (+/- 10 days) from date of enrollment
measure: 90 day Modified Rankin Score
timeFrame: 90 days (+/- 10 days) from date of enrollment
measure: Time from symptom onset to tPA treatment
timeFrame: up to 4.5 hours from symptom onset
measure: Time from symptom onset to Endovascular treatment
timeFrame: up to 6 hours from symptom onset
measure: Symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage and mortality
timeFrame: up to hospital discharge
measure: Stroke mimics
timeFrame: up to hospital discharge
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Houston
country: United States
facility: University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston
state: Texas
Study officials:
affiliation: Memorial Hermann
name: James C Grotta, MD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Grotta JC, Yamal JM, Parker SA, Rajan SS, Gonzales NR, Jones WJ, Alexandrov AW, Navi BB, Nour M, Spokoyny I, Mackey J, Persse D, Jacob AP, Wang M, Singh N, Alexandrov AV, Fink ME, Saver JL, English J, Barazangi N, Bratina PL, Gonzalez M, Schimpf BD, Ackerson K, Sherman C, Lerario M, Mir S, Im J, Willey JZ, Chiu D, Eisshofer M, Miller J, Ornelas D, Rhudy JP, Brown KM, Villareal BM, Gausche-Hill M, Bosson N, Gilbert G, Collins SQ, Silnes K, Volpi J, Misra V, McCarthy J, Flanagan T, Rao CPV, Kass JS, Griffin L, Rangel-Gutierrez N, Lechuga E, Stephenson J, Phan K, Sanders Y, Noser EA, Bowry R. Prospective, Multicenter, Controlled Trial of Mobile Stroke Units. N Engl J Med. 2021 Sep 9;385(11):971-981. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2103879.
citation: Yamal JM, Parker SA, Jacob AP, Rajan SS, Bowry R, Bratina P, Wang M, Nour M, Mackey J, Collins S, Jones W, Schimpf B, Ornelas D, Spokoyny I, Im JF, Gilbert G, Eisshofer M, Grotta JC. Successful conduct of an acute stroke clinical trial during COVID. PLoS One. 2021 Jan 15;16(1):e0243603. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0243603. eCollection 2021.
citation: Czap AL, Singh N, Bowry R, Jagolino-Cole A, Parker SA, Phan K, Wang M, Sheth SA, Rajan SS, Yamal JM, Grotta JC. Mobile Stroke Unit Computed Tomography Angiography Substantially Shortens Door-to-Puncture Time. Stroke. 2020 May;51(5):1613-1615. doi: 10.1161/STROKEAHA.119.028626. Epub 2020 Apr 16.
citation: Bowry R, Parker SA, Yamal JM, Hwang H, Appana S, Rangel-Gutierrez N, Wu TC, Rajan SS, Grotta JC. Time to Decision and Treatment With tPA (Tissue-Type Plasminogen Activator) Using Telemedicine Versus an Onboard Neurologist on a Mobile Stroke Unit. Stroke. 2018 Jun;49(6):1528-1530. doi: 10.1161/STROKEAHA.117.020585. Epub 2018 May 2.
citation: Yamal JM, Rajan SS, Parker SA, Jacob AP, Gonzalez MO, Gonzales NR, Bowry R, Barreto AD, Wu TC, Lairson DR, Persse D, Tilley BC, Chiu D, Suarez JI, Jones WJ, Alexandrov A, Grotta JC. Benefits of stroke treatment delivered using a mobile stroke unit trial. Int J Stroke. 2018 Apr;13(3):321-327. doi: 10.1177/1747493017711950. Epub 2017 Jun 14.
citation: Wu TC, Parker SA, Jagolino A, Yamal JM, Bowry R, Thomas A, Yu A, Grotta JC. Telemedicine Can Replace the Neurologist on a Mobile Stroke Unit. Stroke. 2017 Feb;48(2):493-496. doi: 10.1161/STROKEAHA.116.015363. Epub 2017 Jan 12.