Mortality and cause of death after hospital discharge in 10,981 patients with ischemic stroke and transient ischemic attack

Background: The aim of this study was to examine the 1-year cumulative mortality rate and cause of death, and to identify the predictive factors for death after hospital discharge following ischemic stroke and transient ischemic attack (TIA) using data from the Japan Multicenter Stroke Investigators' Collaboration study. Methods: We prospectively registered 16,922 consecutive patients with acute ischemic stroke or TIA from May 1999 to April 2000 in 156 Japanese hospitals. We mailed a questionnaire to the 15,322 patients who were alive at hospital discharge. Results: 10,981 patients (6,945 men, 4,036 women, age 70 +/- 11 years, median 71, range 19-100 years) were enrolled in the follow-up study. The mean follow-up period was 271 +/- 110 days (median 272 days; range 1-487 days). The 1-year cumulative mortality was 6.8% (7.0% for 10,234 stroke patients and 3.5% for 747 TIA patients). The causes of death were: cerebrovascular disease, 24.1%; pneumonia, 22.6%; heart disease, 18.1%; cancer, 11.0%, and miscellaneous causes, 24.1%. Multivariate analysis suggested that male gender, age, diabetes mellitus, atrial fibrillation, history of stroke, non-lacunar stroke, functional disability and transfer to another hospital or nursing home on discharge were significant independent predictors of death during the followup period. Conclusions: The major causes of death after hospital discharge were found to be cerebrovascular diseases, pneumonia and heart diseases. Thus, in order to improve survival after hospital discharge, in addition to appropriate management of vascular risk factors following stroke, it appears to be important to take measures to prevent pneumonia and to discharge patients to their own home, if possible. Copyright (C) 2005 S. Karger AG, Basel.