Drug Eluting Stenting and Aggressive Medical Treatment for Preventing Recurrent Stroke in Intracranial Atherosclerotic Disease Trial

Inclusion Criteria:

1. Age from 18 to 85 years

2. Patients with ischemic stroke within 30 days of enrolment attributed to 70% to 99%stenosis of a major intracranial artery (internal carotid artery [C4-C7], middlecerebral artery [M1], vertebral artery [V4], or basilar artery) on CTA (According toWASID method)

3. The diameter of the target vessel between 2.0mm - 4.5mm

4. The stenosis lesion length ≤ 14 mm

5. Baseline modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score ≤ 3

6. Patient understands the purpose and requirements of the study, and has providedinformed consent

Exclusion Criteria:

1. Ischemic stroke occurred within 7 days before enrolment

2. Tandem extracranial or intracranial stenosis (70%-99%) or occlusion that is proximalor distal to the target intracranial lesion (NOTE: an exception is allowed ifstenosis or occlusion involves a single vertebral artery proximal to a symptomaticbasilar artery stenosis and the contralateral vertebral artery is supplying thebasilar artery)

3. Bilateral intracranial vertebral artery stenosis of 70%-99% and uncertainty aboutwhich artery is symptomatic (NOTE: an exception is that if bilateral vertebralarteries with 70%-99% stenosis but unequal in size, the dominant side is consideredas symptomatic)

4. Unilateral vertebral artery stenosis of 70%-99% with normal contralateral vertebralartery

5. Stroke caused by perforating artery occlusion

6. CT angiographic evidence of severe calcification at target lesion

7. Any history of brain parenchymal or subarachnoid, subdural or extradural haemorrhagein the past 6 weeks

8. Intracranial artery stenosis caused by non-atherosclerotic lesions, including:arterial dissection, Moyamoya disease, vasculitis disease, herpes zoster,varicella-zoster or other viral vascular diseases, neurosyphilis, any otherintracranial infections, any intracranial stenosis related to cerebrospinal fluidcells, radiation-induced vascular disease, fibromuscular dysplasia, sickle celldisease, neurofibromatosis, central nervous system benign vascular disease,postpartum vascular disease, suspected vasospasm, suspicious embolismrecanalization, etc

9. History of stenting of an intracranial artery

10. Presence of any unequivocal cardiac source of embolism

11. Combined with intracranial tumor, aneurysm or intracranial arteriovenousmalformation

12. Cannot tolerate dual antiplatelet therapy

13. Contraindications to heparin, rapamycin, contrast and local or general anesthesia

14. Hemoglobin<100g/L, platelet count <100×109/L

15. Severe hepatic and renal dysfunction

16. INR>1.5 or there are uncorrectable factors leading to bleeding

17. Major surgery within the past 30 days or planned within 90 days

18. Renal artery, iliac artery, and coronary artery requiring simultaneous intervention

19. Life expectancy <1 year

20. Pregnant or lactating women

21. Cannot complete the follow-up due to cognitive, emotional or mental illness

22. Other situations that are not suitable for enrolment according to the judgement ofthe investigator

23. Enrolment in another study that would conflict with the current study