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The complications of cardioembolic stroke: lessons from the VISTA database

Hen Hallevi1, Karen C Albright, Sheryl Martin-Schild

  • 1University of Texas at Houston, Vascular Neurology Program, Houston, Tex. 77030, USA. hen.hallevi@uth.tmc.edu

Cerebrovascular Diseases (Basel, Switzerland)
|May 31, 2008
PubMed

Insights

Cardioembolic stroke (CES) complications include stroke progression, bleeding, and hemorrhagic transformation (HT). Stroke progression was the most frequent serious complication, with a high mortality rate observed in this patient cohort.

Area of Science:

  • Neurology
  • Cardiovascular Medicine
  • Stroke Research

Background:

  • Cardioembolic stroke (CES) represents a significant portion of ischemic stroke cases.
  • Understanding CES complications is crucial for patient management and outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To describe the spectrum of complications in patients with cardioembolic stroke.
  • To analyze the incidence and patterns of complications in a non-thrombolytic cohort.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of a cohort of CES patients from the VISTA database.
  • Inclusion criteria focused on patients not receiving thrombolytic therapy.

Main Results:

  • Recurrent stroke (2.5%), stroke progression (7.8%), systemic bleeding (3%), and hemorrhagic transformation (HT) (1.5%) were observed.
  • HT exhibited a bimodal temporal distribution.
  • Mortality rate was 25.9%, associated with stroke progression and recurrence.

Conclusions:

  • Hemorrhagic transformation is a common complication in CES patients, presenting with a bimodal pattern.
  • Stroke progression emerged as the most frequent and serious complication.
  • Further research is needed to identify predictors of stroke progression in CES.
Abstract

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