Long term clinical outcomes of patients with ischemic stroke in primary care – a 9-year retrospective study

BACKGROUND: We aim to document the long-term outcomes of ischemic stroke patients and explore the potential risk factors for recurrent cardiovascular events and all-cause mortality in primary care. METHODS: A retrospective cohort study performed at two general out-patient clinics (GOPCs) under Hospital Authority (HA) in Hong Kong (HK). Ischemic stroke patients with at least two consecutive follow-up visits during the recruitment period (1/1-30/6/2010) were included. Patients were followed up regularly till the date of recurrent stroke, cardiovascular event, death or 31/12/2018. The primary outcome was the occurrence of recurrent cerebrovascular event including transient ischemic stroke (TIA), ischemic stroke or hemorrhagic stroke. The secondary outcomes were all-cause mortality and coronary artery disease (CAD). We fit cox proportional hazard model adjusting death as competing risk factor to estimate the cause-specific hazard ratio (csHR). RESULTS: A total of 466 patients (mean age, 71.5 years) were included. During a median follow-up period of 8.7 years, 158 patients (33.9%) died. Eighty patients (17.2%) had recurrent stroke and 57 (12.2%) patients developed CAD. Age was an independent risk factor for recurrent stroke, CAD and death. Statin therapy at baseline had a protective effect for recurrent stroke (csHR = 0.476; 95% confidence interval CI 0.285-0.796, P = 0.005) after adjusting death as a competing risk factor and all-cause mortality (HR = 0.693, 95% CI 0.486-0.968, P = 0.043). In addition, female sex, antiplatelet and a higher diastolic blood pressure (DBP) at baseline were also independent predictors for survival. CONCLUSIONS: Long term prognosis of ischemic stroke patients in primary care is favorable. Use of statin was associated with a significant decrease in stroke recurrence and mortality. Patients who died had a significant lower DBP at baseline, highlighted the need to consider both systolic and diastolic blood pressure in our daily practice.