Table 2.

Key characteristics of participants who received mechanical thrombectomy for basilar artery occlusions from four randomised controlled trials of acute ischaemic stroke included in the meta-analysis by Malik et al⁷²

	BASICS	BEST	ATTENTION	BAOCHE
Study characteristics
Location	International	China	China	China
No of centres	23	28	48	36
Duration	8 years	2 years	2 years	6 years
Imaging	CT or MRI	CT or MRI	CT or MRI	CT or MRI
Sample size (No of participants)	300	131	507	217
Main inclusion criteria
Age (years)	18-85*	≥18	≥18	18-80
Symptom onset	0-6 hours	0-8 hours	0-12 hours	6-24 hours
Pre-stroke modified Rankin score	≤2	≤2	≤2	≤ 1
NIHSS cut-off point	≥10†	≥6	≥10	≥10‡
pc-ASPECTS	NA§	≥6¶	≥6**	≥6
Main outcomes (%)
Successful recanalisation	72	71	91	88
90 day modified Rankin score 0-2 rate
Best medical treatment	30	28	11	14
Mechanical thrombectomy	35	33	33	39
Symptomatic intracranial haemorrhage rate (mechanical thrombectomy)	4.5	8.0	5.0	8.8
Death (mechanical thrombectomy)	38.3	33	36.7	30.9

CT=computed tomography; MRI=magnetic resonance imaging; NIHSS=National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale; pc-ASPECTS=posterior circulation acute stroke prognosis early CT scoring; NA=not available.

*Owing to slow recruitment, patients older than 85 years were recruited after 91 enrolments.

†NIHSS<10 was allowed after interim analysis, owing to slow recruitment.

‡NIHSS cut-off point was later modified to ≥6, owing to slow recruitment.

§Although pc-ASPECTS was not used, patients were excluded if they had extensive bilateral brainstem ischaemia.

¶Patients with pons-midbrain index score ≥3 were also excluded.

**In patients older than 80 years, pc-ASPECTS ≥8 was used.