Citicoline for ischemic stroke: ICTUS trial

Abstract

The paper gives data available in the literature on the use of citicoline in an experimental model of ischemic stroke (IS) and in randomized multicenter placebo-controlled trials. It analyzes the results of the ICTUS trial in which 2298 patients with IS who received randomly citicoline or placebo for 24 hours after the onset of symptoms (I000 mg intravenously every I2 hours during the first 3 days, then orally as one 500-mg tablet every 12 hours during 6 weeks). The results of the trial confirmed the safety of citicoline used in IS, but failed to show its significant advantage over placebo in reducing the degree of disability (global improvement) 90 days later. However, to pool the results of the ICTUS trial with those of other randomized multicenter placebo-controlled studies demonstrates a significant decrease in the degree of disability in IS patients treated with citicoline.

Keywords

• ischemic stroke
• citicoline
• ictus trial