COVID-19 in combination with hemorrhagic stroke increases death risk up to 2.4 times, revealed a study.
- COVID-19 and hemorrhagic stroke are a deadly combination
- Stroke patients with COVID-19 are likely to have coronary artery syndrome
- The study provides an opportunity to tailor treatments for stroke patients who have COVID-19 as a comorbid disease
The study appears in PLOS ONE.
Recent studies suggest that COVID-19 increases the risk of ischemic strokes, the most common type of stroke, which are caused by blockages in an artery that supplies blood to the brain. However, little is known about the association between COVID-19 and hemorrhagic strokes.
Hemorrhagic strokes are caused by a weakened vessel that ruptures and bleeds into the surrounding brain. There are two types of hemorrhagic strokes: Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) is caused by bleeding within the brain tissue itself, while a subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) is caused by bleeding from a damaged artery at the surface of the brain.
Accessing a commonly used health care database, de Havenon and colleagues analyzed medical records from 568 hospitals nationwide. They compared hospital admissions for 23,378 patients with hemorrhagic stroke without COVID-19 in 2019 to 771 patients admitted in 2020 with COVID-19 who also had hemorrhagic strokes before or after hospital admission.
The researchers found a similar pattern among 212 patients with COVID-19/SAH: a higher percentage of in-hospital death (43% vs.15% among controls), longer hospital stays (27 days vs. 13 days), and longer ICU stays (22 days vs. 9 days). Only 31% of these patients had a favorable discharge outcome, compared to 65% among the 2019 control group.
While Whites accounted for more than half of the hemorrhagic strokes in the 2019 control group, Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and other ethnic groups accounted for the majority of strokes among those who also had COVID-19. The researchers plan to follow up on these findings as well.
Among the study's limitations was differences in hospital billing codes for ICH and SAH, which can make it hard to differentiate between them. The study also didn't include information on anticoagulation drug dosage, which could account for some of the strokes.
"Sometimes, as doctors, we see things on a day-to-day, patient-to patient level that doesn't help us very much," Grandhi says. "But seeing a larger data set across a vast hospital network really allows us to see that these aren't just isolated incidences. These are institutional trends throughout the country that could help us guide treatment and develop new interventions that lead to better outcomes for these patients."
Source-Eurekalert