Rationale and design of Short-Term EXenatide therapy in Acute ischaemic Stroke (STEXAS): a randomised, open-label, parallel-group study

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Exenatide in this randomized controlled trial publication.

Thus, therapies that can maintain normoglycaemia during stroke are clinically important.

Glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) analogues, including exenatide, are routinely used in the treatment of hyperglycaemia in type 2 diabetes, but data on the usefulness of this class of agents in the management of elevated glucose levels in AIS are limited.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 30 patients were involved.

PubMed tags the participants as both men and women.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, open-label, parallel-group and pilot study.

Because people in this Exenatide study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Everyone knew when Exenatide was being given (open label), which is simpler to run but leaves more room for expectations to affect what is reported.

The Exenatide group and the comparison group ran side by side rather than switching.

It is described as a pilot, a small early test of whether a larger Exenatide study would be practical.

A follow-up visit at 3 months will facilitate evaluation of neurological outcomes post-stroke.

What Was Measured

Glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) analogues, including exenatide, are routinely used in the treatment of hyperglycaemia in type 2 diabetes, but data on the usefulness of this class of agents in the management of elevated glucose levels in AIS are limited.

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Blood Glucose, Exenatide, Hyperglycemia, Hypoglycemic Agents, Insulin, Peptides and Pilot Projects.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, open-label and parallel-group study of Exenatide in 30 patients.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 1 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2016 (BMJ open), a journal based in England.

More context: the Exenatide compound page, all human trials.