Footnotes

• Competing interests The author has received the following grant support from NIH/NINDS for research related to the secondary prevention of stroke in patients with intracranial arterial stenosis: the WASID Trial (R01 NS36643), the NIH Wingspan Registry (R01 NS051688), the SAMMPRIS Trial (U01 NS058728) and a K24 grant (K24 NS050307). Corporate support for this research has consisted of Bayer providing aspirin and placebo aspirin for the WASID trial, Bristol-Myers Squibb supplying warfarin and placebo warfarin for the WASID trial, Stryker Neurovascular (formerly Boston Scientific Neurovascular) providing study devices and supplemental funding for third party device distribution, site monitoring and study auditing in the SAMMPRIS trial, and the Investigator-Sponsored Study Program of AstraZeneca that donated rosuvastatin (Crestor) to study patients in SAMMPRIS.

• Provenance and peer review Commissioned; internally peer reviewed.