The Masterstroke Steering Committee is pleased to share that the Masterstroke study is now in its final stages of recruitment, with 97% of the target achieved. As of August 2025, 534 participants have been enrolled, leaving just 16 more to reach the study goal of 550.
Recruitment across participating hospitals continues to be strong. Gold Coast University Hospital is leading the way in Australia, recently enrolling its sixth Masterstroke participant. Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney and Princess Alexandra Hospital in Metro South, Queensland, are also making significant contributions, each with three participants recruited to date.
The committee extends its sincere thanks to all sites, staff, and collaborators for their ongoing commitment and effort.
MASTERSTROKE is a pragmatic, prospective, double blind, randomized, multicentre clinical trial. The aim is to assess the influence of induced hypertension (IH) during general anaesthesia for thrombectomy involving stroke patients. The primary outcome is functional recovery at 90 days as measured by the modified Rankin Scale. Anaesthetists will be asked to target a systolic blood pressure target of 140 mm Hg or 170 mm Hg from case start until the target vessel is recanalised or case completion if recanalisation is not achieved.
The trial has received a total of $NZ490,000 from the Auckland District Health Board Research Trust, The Auckland Medical Research Foundation and the Neurological Foundation of New Zealand in order to fund the project office, database and New Zealand recruitment. Dr Doug Campbell is supported by a two year Senior Clinical Research Fellowship from the Neurological Foundation of New Zealand to help administer the trial.
Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry registration number: ACTRN12619001274167
| New Zealand hospitals |
| Auckland City Hospital |
| Christchurch Hospital |
For further information about this study, please contact the MASTERSTROKE principal investigator, Dr Doug Campbell by email.
Deng C, Campbell D, Diprose W, Eom C, Wang K, Robertson N, Short TG, Brew S, Caldwell J, McGuinness B, Barber PA. A pilot randomised controlled trial of the management of systolic blood pressure during endovascular thrombectomy for acute ischaemic stroke. Anaesthesia. 2020 Jun;75(6):739-746. doi: 10.1111/anae.14940. Epub 2019 Dec 12. PMID: 31833064.