Previously diagnosed hypertension may reduce stroke response time

The time between the onset of stroke symptoms and implementation of treatment plays a crucial role in the prognosis, with 4.5 h being the gold standard for thrombolytic therapy in Poland during 2016-2018, when our study was conducted. Therefore, the delay in admission influences prognosis. This study aimed to examine if patients' comorbidities, both previously diagnosed and previously unknown, affect their time of hospital arrival.

The study group of 161 patients post-stroke admitted to the hospital after 4.5 h or more was assessed for the presence of previously diagnosed and previously undetected comorbidities. In the control group, the retrospective analysis of files of 85 patients with the diagnosis of stroke who had been admitted in less than 4.5 h and had received thrombolytic treatment was performed. A statistical analysis was performed to explore the differences between groups.

A statistically significant difference was shown in the prevalence of previously diagnosed hypertension (78.3% vs. 89.41%; p=.030) and atrial fibrillation (20.5% vs. 5.88%; p=.003), in the examined and the control group, respectively. In the study group, we also found more cases of newly diagnosed: hypercholesterolemia (14.9% vs. 14.1% in the control group), atrial fibrillation (12.4% vs. 10.6%), and hypertension (8.1% vs. 3.5%), but their prevalence did not differ significantly between the groups (p>.05 for all).

In patients after stroke, previously diagnosed hypertension and atrial fibrillation are the most prevalent comorbidities. Moreover, previously diagnosed hypertension is associated with earlier admission to the hospital, which may be related to higher health awareness in these patients.