Patient description: A 62-year-old African-American man presented with left upper and lower extremity weakness, associated with dark visual spot in right eye, right facial numbness, facial drop and slurred speech. He denied dyspnea, headache, palpitations, chest pain, fever, dizziness, bowel or urinary incontinence, loss of consciousness. His medical history was significant for hypertension, hyperlipidemia and hypothyroidism. He smokes cigarette 1 pack per day for 40 years and alcohol consumption of 5 to 6 beers per week. He is not aware about his family history. He is using Levothyroxine, Atorvastatin and HTCZ. His vital signs were stable in the primary evaluation. Left-sided facial droop, dysarthria, and left-sided hemiplegia were seen in the physical exam. His National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score was calculated as 7. Initial CT angiogram of head and neck reported no acute intracranial findings. Intravenous recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) was administered as well as high-dose statin therapy. The patient was admitted to the intensive care unit to be monitored for 24 hours. MRI of the head revealed an acute 1.7-cm infarct of the right periventricular white matter and posterior right basal ganglia.

Clinical trial eligibility criteria: eligible ages (years): 18.0-999.0,  Acute Ischemic Stroke Acute ischemic stroke patients 2. Treated with 0.9mg/kg IV rt-PA within 3 hours of stroke onset or time last known well 3. Age ≥ 18 4. NIHSS score ≥ 6 prior to IV rt-PA 5. Able to receive assigned study drug within 60 minutes of initiation of IV rt-PA  Known allergy or hypersensitivity to argatroban or eptifibatide 2. Previous stroke in the past 90 days 3. Previous intracranial hemorrhage, neoplasm, subarachnoid hemorrhage, or arterial venous malformation 4. Clinical presentation suggested a subarachnoid hemorrhage, even if initial CT scan was normal 5. Surgery or biopsy of parenchymal organ in the past 30 days 6. Trauma with internal injuries or ulcerative wounds in the past 30 days 7. Severe head trauma in the past 90 days 8. Systolic blood pressure >180mmHg post-IV rt-PA 9. Diastolic blood pressure >105mmHg post-IV rt-PA 10. Serious systemic hemorrhage in the past 30 days 11. Known hereditary or acquired hemorrhagic diathesis, coagulation factor deficiency, or oral anticoagulant therapy with INR >1.5 12. Positive urine pregnancy test for women of child bearing potential 13. Glucose <50 or >400 mg/dl 14. Platelets <100,000/mm3 15. Hematocrit <25 % 16. Elevated PTT above laboratory upper limit of normal 17. Creatinine > 4 mg/dl 18. Ongoing renal dialysis, regardless of creatinine 19. Received Low Molecular Weight heparins (such as Dalteparin, Enoxaparin, Tinzaparin) in full dose within the previous 24 hours 20. Abnormal PTT within 48 hours prior to randomization after receiving heparin or a direct thrombin inhibitor (such as bivalirudin, argatroban, dabigatran or lepirudin) 21. Received Factor Xa inhibitors (such as Fondaparinaux, apixaban or rivaroxaban) within the past 48 hours 22. Received glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors within the past 14 days 23. Pre-existing neurological or psychiatric disease which confounded the neurological or functional evaluations e.g., baseline modified Rankin score >3 24. Other serious, advanced, or terminal illness or any other condition that the investigator felt would pose a significant hazard to the patient if rt-PA, eptifibatide or argatroban therapy was initiated a. Example: known cirrhosis or clinically significant hepatic disease 25. Current participation in another research drug treatment protocol Subjects could not start another experimental agent until after 90 days 26. Informed consent from the patient or the legally authorized representative was not or could not be obtained 27. High density lesion consistent with hemorrhage of any degree 28. Large (more than 1/3 of the middle cerebral artery) regions of clear hypodensity on the baseline CT Scan. Sulcal effacement and/or loss of grey-white differentiation alone are not contraindications for treatment