Efficacy of Cerebrolysin Treatment as an add-on Therapy to Mechanical Thrombectomy in Acute Ischemic Stroke.

This study is designed to determine the efficacy and safety of Cerebrolysin treatment as an add- on therapy to mechanical thrombectomy (MT) in reducing global disability in subjects with acute ischemic stroke (AIS). The investigators have planned a single centre, prospective, open-label, single-arm study with 12 months follow-up of 50 patients with moderate to severe AIS, with a small established infarct core and with good collateral circulation who achieve significant reperfusion following MT and who receive additional Cerebrolysin within 8 hours of stroke onset compared to 50 historical controls treated with MT alone - matched for age, clinical severity, occlusion location, baseline perfusion lesion volume, onset to reperfusion time and use of iv thrombolytic therapy (rt-PA). The primary outcome measure will be overall proportion of subjects receiving Cerebrolysin comparing to control group experiencing a favorable functional outcome (by modified Rankin Scale \[mRS\] 0-2) at 7 day, 30 days, 90 days and 12 months following stroke onset. The secondary objectives are to determine the efficacy of Cerebrolysin as compared to control group in reducing risk of symptomatic secondary hemorrhagic transformation, improving neurological outcome (NIHSS 0-2 at day 7, day 30 and 90); reducing mortality rates (over the 90-day and 12 months study period); and improving: activities of daily living (by Barthel Index; BI), health-related quality of life (as measured by the EQ-5D-5L) assessed at day 30, 90 and at 12 months. The other measures of efficacy in Cerebrolysin group will include: assessment of final stroke volume and penumbral salvage (measured by CT/CTP at 30 days) and its change compared to baseline volume, changes over time in language function (by the 15-item Boston Naming Test), hemispatial neglect (by line bisection test), global cognitive function (by The Montreal Cognitive Assessment) and depression (by Hamilton Depression Rating Scale) between day 30 and day 90 ass