The enrolled cases exceeded 5000: INTERACT3 becomes the world’s largest cerebral haemorrhage trial

With more than 5,000 patients participating, the "INTERACT3" study is now the world's largest clinical trial of acute intracerebral haemorrhage (ICH), according to the research team in China.

Co-sponsored and implemented by West China Hospital and The George Institute China, INTERACT3 is a clinical research project to tackle the increasing challenge imposed by ICH, the most serious type of acute stroke due to bleeding in the brain. It was initiated to determine the effects of a ‘care bundle’, or package of treatment involving systems of care to ensure rapid use of intensive blood pressure control, management of elevated blood glucose levels and fever, and correction of anticoagulation-induced clotting abnormality in the blood, as compared to routine care.

The study uses a novel, stepped wedge, cluster randomised design and is has been rolled out as a quality improvement strategy across hospitals in China and overseas over the last 2 years. The greater the number of enrolled hospitals as well as patients will provide more reliable evidence and the potential for this approach to optimize treatment for ICH across the world.

Dr. Lily Song, Senior Researcher, Head of Stroke at George Institute China, introduced that the ‘INTERACT3’ has now completed 60 percentage of its task; the total number of enrolled cases have exceeded all past brain haemorrhage clinical trials in the world, “a milestone that has greatly inspired all project team members and researchers. We will continue our efforts to ensure a full completion of this study. "

Professor Craig Anderson, chief representative of the George Institute for Global Health (China), congratulated the team for the outstanding achievement: "Early comprehensive treatment of brain haemorrhagic can significantly improve function for patients with stroke. Reaching this scale makes the INTERACT3 a solid solution not only for serious disease burden of stroke in China, but also for clinical practice worldwide. "