Association of Paroxysmal Supraventricular Tachycardia with Ischemic Stroke: A National Case-Control Study

Cardioembolic stroke accounts for approximately 15%-20% of all ischemic strokes. Atrial fibrillation constitutes one-half to two-thirds of all cardioembolic stroke events. The association of paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia (PSVT) with ischemic stroke remains unclear. A national case-control study was conducted to identify the risk factors, including PSVT, for ischemic stroke in Taiwan.

We designed a national case-control study comprising patients diagnosed with ischemic stroke (n = 5633) from 1997 to 2011; each patient from the case group was randomly matched with the control group (n = 30,895) in Taiwan. Data were retrospectively collected from Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database, which contains not only claims data on hospitalization, emergency room visits, and outpatient department visits, but also patient characteristics.

Logistic regression analysis was used to identify the risk factors for ischemic stroke. Independent risk factors for ischemic stroke included age (in 5-year intervals; odds ratio [OR], 1.76; 95% confidence interval [CI], 173-1.78), the male sex (versus the female sex; OR, 1.88; 95% CI, 1.74-2.01), chronic kidney disease (OR, 3.09; 95% CI, 2.67-3.57), PSVT (OR, 2.05; 95% CI, 1.30-3.19), and aspirin use (OR, .04; 95% CI, .03-0.05).

Our study is the first in Taiwan to identify PSVT as a significant risk factor for ischemic stroke. New antithrombotic regimens, including aspirin, can be recommended for the primary prevention of stroke and for reducing the burden of stroke for patients with PSVT.