Bleeding within the skull, also known as brain haemorrhage, affects 3 million people in the world each year.
One in five people who survive brain haemorrhage have an irregular heart rhythm called ‘atrial fibrillation’, which puts them at risk of stroke and other blood clots.
Blood-thinning medicines, known as ‘anticoagulant’ drugs, are used in everyday clinical practice to protect people with atrial fibrillation from developing blood clots. However, as these drugs also increase the risk of bleeding, it is not known whether they should be prescribed to people who have had a brain haemorrhage.
SoSTART is a randomised clinical trial to produce reliable information about whether people with atrial fibrillation who have had a brain haemorrhage benefit from starting anticoagulant drugs
More information
SoSTART webpages on the University of Edinburgh website
Clinicaltrials.gov identifier: NCT03153150
