Patients who experience medical or neurological complications following stroke, such as pneumonia or brain swelling, are at a greater risk of dying in the hospital, according to an article in the September 13 issue of The Archives Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
According to information in the article, stroke will be the second leading cause of death and disability in the developed world in 2020. However, there is little information on factors that may be associated with dying in the hospital and the impact of neurological complications on early outcomes for patients with stroke.
Peter U. Heuschmann, M.D., M.P.H., of the University of Muenster, Germany, and colleagues studied stroke patients who were admitted to German hospitals between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2000 to determine factors that may predict risk of death after ischemic stroke (when a blood clot prevents blood from getting to the brain). A total of 13,440 ischemic stroke patients were included in the study.