Clinical Characteristics of Nonagenarian Stroke

Heo, Sung Hyuk; Chang, Dae Il; Seo, Kyung Hwa; Bu, Seon Hee; Kang, Myung Chan; Lee, Sang Bum; Park, Key Chung; Ahn, Tae Beom; Yoon, Sung Sang; Chung, Kyung Cheon

Abstract

BACKGROUND: As the elderly population is fast growing, the incidence of stroke is also increasing. We studied the clinical characteristics of nonagenarian stroke compared to a population of patients under the age of ninety.
METHODS
Subjects included 44 nonagenarian stroke patients and 22,227 control patients aged under ninety. Clinical characteristics including age, sex, risk factors, stroke subtype, and outcome (one-year prognosis, evaluated by a modified Rankin scale) were analyzed.
RESULTS
The proportion of nonagenarian stroke accounted for 0.2% of all cases of stroke. Ischemic stroke was more common than hemorrhagic stroke in the nonagenarian group. In addition, the female gender was more frequent (p<0.01). As the patients were older, their admission period was shorter, the discharge against medical advice was increased, and the mortality was higher. Hypertension and atrial fibrillation were significantly higher (p<0.05, p<0.001, respectively) in the nonagenarian ischemic stroke patients.
CONCLUSIONS
Nonagenarian stroke patients have unique clinical characteristics compared with stroke patients under the age of ninety.