Impact of female gender on prognosis in type 2 diabetic patients with ischemic stroke

This study assessed gender differences in diabetic patients with ischemic stroke with respect to vascular risk factors, clinical features and early outcome. Ischemic stroke was diagnosed in 261 diabetic women and 300 diabetic men of 2,446 ischemic stroke patients included in a prospective stroke registry over 17 years. Mean +/- SD age was 77.5 +/- 8.3 years in women and 71.8 +/- 9.7 years in men (p < 0.021). Risk factors for stroke including hypertension, atrial fibrillation, congestive heart failure and valvular heart disease were significantly more common in women. Cardioembolic infarction occurred in 29.5% of women and 15.3% of men (p < 0.001), and lacunar stroke in 40.3% of men and 29.9% of women (p < 0.006). In-hospital mortality was 14.9% in diabetic women, and 8.3% in diabetic men (p < 0.02). After multivariate analysis, congestive heart failure (OR = 4.59), frontal lobe involvement (OR = 2.67), hypertension (OR = 1.62) and age were independent variables for ischemic stroke in diabetic women. Diabetic women had a poor prognosis, which may be due to differences in age, comorbidity and stroke subtype distribution.