Epidemiology of In-Hospital Deaths Among Black Stroke Patients

Fatality rates in 527 consecutive stroke patients were compared by nine different criteria: age, sex, each of four risk factors or the absence of all, type of lesion, and initial level of consciousness. In the 527, the only significant increases (P < 0.01) in fatality rate were in older patients compared to younger patients (48% versus 34%), hemorrhages compared to infarctions (85% versus 33%), and patients with depressed sensoriums compared to alert ones (65% versus 19%). When the series was split by age (≤ 65 years, ≥ 66 years), younger hypertensives had more fatalities than normotensives (39% versus 24%, P < 0.02), while older hypertensives fared better than normotensives (45% fatalities versus 50%, not significant). For infarction alone, younger hypertensives had 21% fatalities, normotensives 16%; of older hypertensives, 39% died compared to 44% of the normotensives. These differences are not significant (P<0.25). In this series, it appears that (1) age, initial sensorium, and type of lesion are good discriminant factors in the prognosis for life after stroke, (2) age-specific analysis may highlight other factors operating only in a certain age group, and (3) hypertension may have relatively benign associations among more elderly patients.