Cardiac complications in acute ischemic stroke.

Abstract

INTRODUCTION:

To characterize cardiac complications in acute ischemic stroke (AIS) patients admitted from an urban emergency department (ED).

METHODS:

Retrospective cross-sectional study evaluating AIS patients admitted from the ED within 24 hours of symptom onset who also had an echocardiogram performed within 72 hours of admission.

RESULTS:

Two hundred AIS patients were identified with an overall in-hospital mortality rate of 8% (n = 16). In our cohort, 57 (28.5%) of 200 had an ejection fraction less than 50%, 35 (20.4%) of 171 had ischemic changes on electrocardiogram (ECG), 18 (10.5%) of 171 presented in active atrial fibrillation, 21 (13.0%) of 161 had serum troponin elevation, and 2 (1.1%) of 184 survivors had potentially lethal arrhythmias on telemetry monitoring. Subgroup analysis revealed higher in-hospital mortality rates among those with systolic dysfunction (15.8% versus 4.9%; P = 0.0180), troponin elevation (38.1% versus 3.4%; P < 0.0001), atrial fibrillation on ECG (33.3% versus 3.8%; P = 0.0003), and ischemic changes on ECG (17.1% versus 6.1%; P = 0.0398) compared with those without.

CONCLUSION:

A proportion of AIS patients may have cardiac complications. Systolic dysfunction, troponin elevation, atrial fibrillation, or ischemic changes on ECG may be associated with higher in-hospital mortality rates. These findings support the adjunctive role of cardiac-monitoring strategies in the acute presentation of AIS.

• Authors: Charles R Wira 3rd, Emanuel Rivers, Cynthia Martinez-Capolino, Brian Silver, Gayathri Iyer, Robert Sherwin, Christopher Lewandowski
• Journal: The western journal of emergency medicine (West J Emerg Med) Vol. 12 Issue 4 Pg. 414-20 (Nov 2011) ISSN: 1936-9018 [Electronic] United States
• PMID: 22224130 (Publication Type: Journal Article)