Five-Year Mortality After Transient Ischemic Attack

Background and Purpose— We aimed at providing estimates of mortality associated with cardiometabolic comorbidity and incident readmission from cardiometabolic as compared with noncardiometabolic conditions after a first transient ischemic attack. Methods— Between 2000 and 2015, patients hospitalized for a first transient ischemic attack were examined for cardiometabolic comorbidities (diabetes mellitus, coronary artery disease, heart failure, and atrial fibrillation), 5-year incident hospitalization, and time to death. Results— Of 251 patients with transient ischemic attack, 134 (53%) had at least 1 and 55 (22%) had at least 2 cardiometabolic conditions. By 5 years, 491 readmissions (134 [27%] cardiometabolic and 357 [73%] noncardiometabolic) and 75 deaths (27 [36%] cardiometabolic and 47 [64%] noncardiometabolic) were observed. Mortality was increased with any concurrent cardiometabolic comorbidity (hazard ratio, 1.89; 95% confidence interval, 1.17–3.03; P =0.0089) with multiplicative mortality risk from a combination of coronary artery disease and heart failure. Each hospitalization was associated with a 1.5-fold risk of death (95% confidence interval, 1.37–1.64; P <0.0001). Risk of cardiometabolic and noncardiometabolic mortality was correlated with the corresponding category-specific readmission. Conclusions— Among patients hospitalized for first transient ischemic attack, 5-year mortality is associated with concurrent cardiometabolic comorbidity and rates of subsequent hospitalization.