A hospital-based study on ischaemic stroke characteristics, management, and outcomes in Sarawak: Where do we stand?

Located on the Borneo Island, Sarawak is the largest state of Malaysia and has a population distinctive from Peninsular Malaysia. The ischaemic stroke data in Sarawak had not been reported despite the growing number of patients annually. We aimed to investigate patient characteristics, management, and outcomes of ischaemic stroke in Sarawak and benchmark the results with national and international published data.

We included ischaemic stroke cases admitted to Sarawak General Hospital between June 2013 and August 2018 from Malaysia National Stroke Registry. We performed descriptive analyses on patient demographics, cardiovascular risk factors, prior medications, smoking status, arrival time, thrombolysis rate, Get With The Guidelines (GWTG)-Stroke measures, and outcomes at discharge. We also numerically compared the results from Sarawak with the published data from selected national and international cohorts.

We analysed 1435 ischaemic stroke cases. The mean age was 60.1±13.2 years old; 64.9% were male; median baseline National Institute of Health Stroke Scale was seven points. Hypertension was the most prevalent risk factor of ischaemic stroke; 12.7% had recurrent stroke; 13.7% were active smokers. The intravenous thrombolysis rate was 18.8%. We achieved 80-90% in three GWTG-Stroke performance measures and 90-98% in four additional quality measures in our ischaemic stroke management. At discharge, 57% had modified Rankin Scale of 0-2; 6.7% died during hospitalisation. When compared with selected national and international data, patients in Sarawak were the youngest; Sarawak had more male and more first-ever stroke. Thrombolysis rate in Sarawak was higher compared with most studies in the comparison. Functional outcome at discharge in Sarawak was better than national cohort but still lagging behind when compared with the developed countries. In-hospital mortality rate in Sarawak was slightly lower than the national data but higher when compared with other countries.

Our study described characteristics, management, and outcomes of ischaemic stroke in Sarawak. We achieved high compliance with most of GTWG-Stroke performance and quality indicators. Sarawak had better outcomes than the national results on ischaemic stroke. However, there is still room for improvement when compared with other countries. Actions are needed to reduce the cardiovascular burdens for stroke prevention, enhance healthcare resources for stroke care, and improve intravenous thrombolysis treatment in Sarawak.