KOMPAS.com – New research finds Covid-19 patients who are hospitalized have a higher risk of developing it stroke, compared with patients with similar infectious conditions such as influenza and sepsis in a previous study.
For this analysis, the researchers accessed the Cardiovascular Disease List Covid-19 American Heart Association to investigate stroke risk among patients hospitalized for Covid-19, both from their demographic characteristics, medical history, and hospital survival.
The Covid-19 Registry data taken for this study included more than 20,000 patients hospitalized with Covid-19 across the US between January and November 2020.
Also read: Risk of Covid-19 in Stroke Patients, Can Cause Brain Blood Clots
Main author Dr. Saate Shakil, a cardiology specialist at the University of Washington, said these findings suggest that Covid-19 can increase the risk of stroke, although the exact mechanism is still unknown.
The new study found that 1.4% of Covid-19 patients had a stroke confirmed by diagnostic imaging.
Of these, 52.7% had an ischemic stroke (caused by blocked blood flow to the brain); 45.2% had unspecified bleeding or stroke; and 2.5% had a transient ischemic attack or mild stroke (Transient ischemic attack).
Covid-19 patients those who had a stroke were more likely to be male (64%) and older by a mean age of 65, than those who did not have a stroke with a mean age of 61.
The study revealed that 44% of ischemic stroke patients had type 2 diabetes, compared with about a third of patients who did not have a stroke.
Eight out of 10 ischemic stroke patients had high blood pressure, compared with 58% of non-stroke patients.
In this study it also appeared that atrial fibrillation impaired heart rhythm was found in 18% of ischemic stroke patients and 9% of those who had no stroke.
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Stroke patients were hospitalized on average for 22 days – about 12 more days than patients who did not have a stroke.
According to the findings that were presented at the virtual American meeting Stroke In this association, hospital mortality was more than two times higher among stroke patients (37%) than among those without stroke (16%).
Black patients accounted for 27% of Covid-19 patients in this study, and 31% of ischemic stroke cases.
Research presented at the meeting is usually considered preliminary until it is published in a journal peer-review.
Also read: Influenza Vaccines Lower Your Risk of Heart Attack and Stroke
Shakil emphasized that stroke has consequences for difficult recovery from Covid-19, so that patients have to face a difficult path to survive.
Covid-19 and stroke can simultaneously cause significant harm in patients who have both conditions.
“As the pandemic continues, we are discovering that the coronavirus is not just a respiratory disease, but a vascular disease that can affect multiple organ systems,” Shakil said in a news release.
“So it is more important than ever for us to curb the spread of Covid-19 through public health interventions and widespread vaccine distribution,” he concluded.
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