The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) has been awarded $10 million to provide statistical leadership and coordinate the national data for CREST-2, a $50 million pair of clinical trials that will compare various approaches to maintaining blood flow to the brain. A UAB news release indicates that the management of these studies is a joint effort between UAB and the Mayo Clinic-Jacksonville, which will reportedly provide clinical leadership. CREST-2 began at UAB’s School of Public Health this spring and is funded through 2022.
According to the UAB news release, the CREST-2 trials will look at revascularization procedures and best medical management, including the use of pharmaceuticals, physician office visits, and addressing health behaviors. The first trial will compare the use of best medical management in addition to endarterectomy to best medical management alone. The second trial will compare using best medical management along with carotid stenting to using best medical management alone. Both trials will each have 1,240 randomized patients recruited from around 120 centers in the United States (US) and Canada.
The UAB news release notes that the 120 medical centers across the US and Canada have not been confirmed yet, but the work at the UAB School of Public Health and Mayo Clinic–Jacksonville begins now to get all the data systems built and tested to be able to receive and analyze the data as quickly and efficiently as possible.
George Howard, DrPh, explains, “We will get to look at each procedure compared to medical management that includes stronger cholesterol management, better blood pressure control, and other modes that were not widely used 20 years ago.” UAB researchers for CREST-2 include George and Virginia Howard, Virginia Wadley, PhD, Joan Hilner, and Richard Mailhot. CREST-2 has been awarded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health.
[Source: University of Alabama at Birmingham]
