Background: The global burden of stroke continues to rise and is the third leading cause of disability worldwide. The factors influencing the dynamics of recovery and functional outcome in the acute period of stroke remain not fully understood.
Aims: to study the relationship between gender-age characteristics, comorbid status and the dynamics of the functional state in the acute period of stroke in patients living in the Arkhangelsk region.
Materials and methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted. We assessed the gender-age structure of patients, functional status (FS) according to the NIHSS and mRS scales at the admission to the hospital and discharge, and its dynamics during the hospitalization period. We analyzed the relationship between FS and gender-age characteristics, type of stroke, and concomitant diseases. The dynamics of recovery were assessed using the rate of decline in NIHSS and mRs points.
Results: We analyzed the treatment results of 1617 patients with stroke (mean age 63.8±11.4 years) discharged from the neurological department in 2017-2020, 968 men, 649 women. It was revealed that women were more disabled initially (p0.001), but the dynamics of recovery in the acute period of stroke were better than in men. With increasing age, the rate of decline in scores on rating scales decreased. The best dynamics of recovery were demonstrated by patients with atherothrombotic and lacunar types of stroke, patients with cardioembolic stroke recovered the slowest. High comorbidity burden was associated with poor functional outcome. Independent associations were identified between the presence of atrial fibrillation (AF), cerebral atherosclerosis (CA), chronic heart failure (CHF) and a higher mRs score at the admission. At the time of discharge, AF, CHF, arterial hypertension (AH) and coronary heart disease (CHD) were independently associated with high mRs scores, and the presence of CA was associated with lower mRs scores.
Conclusions: women recovered better, despite greater disability upon admission. Age and comorbidity burden served as reasons limiting the rate of recovery. AF, CHF, CHD and AH were the main comorbid problems associated with worse functional outcome at discharge. The results obtained can be used to predict early functional outcome in patients with stroke.