Context

Major haemorrhage, particularly intracranial haemorrhage (ICH), is a dreaded consequence of antithrombotic therapy. Strategies to mitigate this risk are needed as indications for antithrombotic therapy increasingly extend to older, high-risk patients. A previous large-scale randomised controlled trial demonstrated the benefits of lowering blood pressure (BP) in preventing recurrent stroke.1 In addition, a posthoc analysis of pooled data from the SPORTIF trials suggested a threshold BP of <140/80 mm Hg to decrease risk of stroke. In that study, extrapolation to haemorrhagic stroke was limited by the small number of ICH events (n=17).2 The current study sought to validate these findings in a non-trial setting and to better define the temporal relationship between BP and recurrent stroke.