Letter by Schlachetzki et al Regarding Article, “Endovascular Stroke Therapy: Tirofiban Is Associated With Risk of Fatal Intracerebral Hemorrhage and Poor Outcome”

To the Editor: The current study by Kellert et al1 stirs up the debate on the potential of glycoprotein IIb/IIIa antagonists in the therapy of ischemic stroke, and at first sight seems disappointing, especially, to interventional neuroradiologists.Blocking the fibrin-binding site at the C by integrin αIIbβ3–blocking agents has been attempted in ischemic stroke therapy in various settings with and without recombinant tissue-type plasminogen activator (rtPA): the Abciximab in Emergency Treatment of Stroke Trial-II in patients exceeding the time limit for IV rtPA used an monoclonal antibody 7E3 fragment2 and was prematurely terminated because of an excess of hemorrhage. The use of the highly specific nonpeptide tyrosine derivate tirofiban within 3 to 22 hours of stroke onset in the Safety of Tirofiban in acute Ischemic Stroke (SaTIS) trial, however, was safe but …