Scientists from the University of Queensland found that almost two-thirds of acute stroke patients fail to survive more than a decade and have a high risk of recurrence.
The research is published in Stroke and was conducted by Dr. Yang Peng et al.
In the study, researchers analyzed data from more than 300,000 patients admitted to hospital following a sudden stroke between 2008 and 2017 in Australia and New Zealand.
They also investigated how many years were lost to stroke by comparing a patient’s predicted life expectancy with the length of actual survival.
They found only 36.4% of patients survived beyond 10 years, and 26.8% had another stroke.
They found that a stroke reduced a patient’s life expectancy by five and a half years on average, compared with the general population.
In proportional terms, this meant a stroke reduced a person’s life expectancy by one-third.
The team also found patients with a hemorrhagic stroke who have bleeding in the brain are at greater risk of death, another stroke and reduced life expectancy than those with an ischemic stroke, which is caused by a burst blood vessel.
Acute stroke is one of the most common causes of hospitalization and disability in Australia and has been linked to risk factors such as high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol levels, diabetes, smoking and heart disease by the Stroke Foundation.
These findings reinforce the need for concerted efforts to improve acute stroke care.
The team says doctors need stroke networks of care to rapidly identify patients who have had a stroke, and provide them with access to important and time-sensitive treatment, such as thrombolysis, a clot-busting medication, and endovascular therapy, a specialized procedure to remove blood clots in the vessels to the brain.
They also need dedicated stroke units to provide multidisciplinary care for these patients which is known to reduce death and disability after a stroke.
There should also be a focus on lifestyle and risk factor modifications for secondary prevention, given the number of patients who will have a recurrent stroke.
If you care about stroke, please read studies that at 27, she collapsed in the shower from a stroke, and new way to save many more lives from heart attack and stroke.
For more information about health, please see recent studies that newer blood thinner drug plus aspirin could cut stroke risk by nearly 30%, and results showing that stroke risk is 8 times higher in people with COVID-19.
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