Grant: Project Grant

Cerebral venous thrombosis is a condition where blood clots form in the draining veins of the brain. It is a rare type of stroke but when it occurs it tends to affect younger women. 75% of patients are female and 80% are under the age of 50. People with CVT can have severe headaches, vision loss, weakness, seizures and coma. 15% are left dead or disabled, 25% cannot return to work, and over half have long-term problems with low energy, thinking or mood. Because it is a rare disease, CVT is hard to study in large trials. Treatment for the disease is based on opinion. CVT is treated with strong blood thinners, but it is not clear which blood thinner is best or how long people should be treated. We want to study which type of blood thinner for CVT is the best choice. But because it is a rare disease, first we need to make sure we can find enough people to join the study. We have teamed up with 17 stroke hospitals across the country to find patients. Patients in our study will be randomly assigned to one of two types of blood thinners. The first is a newer type called rivaroxaban that does not need regular blood tests. The second is the usual type of blood thinner which requires blood tests to check drug levels. We will see if our large national team can find 50 patients in one year for the study. We will study each patient for one year and will do repeat brain scans to see if their blood clots have dissolved, and will do detailed testing about thinking and concentration in patients with CVT. Because CVT is rarely studied, we also want to learn more about its long-term effects of CVT on patients' quality of life. We will have discussions with patients across the country about which symptoms affect their lives the most. We hope to improve the way we treat CVT, and how well we understand its long-term effects. By partnering with patients to set our top research priorities, we hope that together this will help improve their quality of life.