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Patients sustaining brain trauma showed elevated risk for stroke
Chen Y. Stroke. 2011;doi:10.1161/strokeaha.111.620112.
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Those who sustain a traumatic brain injury are at an increased risk for stroke during the short and long term, according to the results of a Taiwanese, population-based study.
The study featured data from the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database 2000, which is an annual release of the Taiwan National Health Research Institute. In all, 23,199 patients who received ambulatory or hospitalization care and were diagnosed with traumatic brain injury (TBI) that included certain neurological disorders were matched against 69,597 patients who did not experience TBI. Follow-up was at 3 months, 1 year and 5 years.
During the first 3 months, substantially more patients with TBI experienced strokes (2.91% vs. 0.3%), a disparity which was also observed but to a lesser extent at 1-year (4.17% vs. 0.96%) and 5-year (8.2% vs. 3.89%) intervals. After adjusting for socioeconomic and certain comorbidity variables, the HRs for stroke was 10.21 (95% CI, 8.71-11.96) at 3 months, 4.61 (95% CI, 4.16-5.11) at 1 year and 2.32 (95% CI, 2.17-2.47) at 5 years.
Among the subtypes of stroke examined, patients with TBI had the greatest risk for intracerebral hemorrhage (adjusted HR=6.33; 95% CI, 5.60-7.83).
“A coordinated and systematic approach should be adopted to prevent patients with TBI from subsequent stroke and to optimize outcomes,” the researchers wrote, adding that future studies are needed to explain the mechanisms by which TBI is linked to stroke.
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