Sex-related differences of acute stroke unit care: results from the Austrian stroke unit registry

Evaluation of: Gattringer T, Ferrari J, Knoflach M et al. Sex-related differences of acute stroke unit care results from an Austrian stroke unit registry. Stroke 45, 1632-1638 (2014). The authors analyzed data from 47,209 patients diagnosed with ischemic stroke or transient ischemic attack from January 2005 to December 2012. In this study, epidemiological data, stroke type, diagnostics and clinical scores were analyzed for age-adjusted preclinical and clinical characteristics as well as quality of acute stroke care. Moreover, outcome at 3 months was included in a multivariate model corrected for demographic and clinical confounders. While there were no reported sex differences in stroke care and thrombolysis rates, males more often received magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scans. From follow-up data, a worse functional outcome was observed for females in univariate and multivariate analysis. In fact, females were less likely to be prescribed statins and more likely to receive antiplatelet therapy. As a stroke risk factor, a higher rate of atrial fibrillation was observed in females.