Int J Qual Health Care: October 17, 2013 Objective Despite widespread interest in many jurisdictions in monitoring and improving the quality of stroke care delivery, benchmarks for most stroke performance indicators have not been established. The objective of this study was to develop data-derived benchmarks for acute stroke quality indicators. Design Nine key acute stroke quality indicators were […]
STROKEAHA: October 17, 2013 Effect on Short-term and Long-term Outcomes Background and Purpose—Poststroke infections (PSIs) worsen the outcome in acute ischemic stroke, but the effect of preceding infection (PI) is controversial. Data on young patients are scarce. We characterized PI and PSI in young adults with first-ever stroke and studied whether they are associated with 3-month […]
STROKEAHA: October 17, 2013 Background and Purpose—The association between stroke and subsequent dementia or Alzheimer disease is well established. What is less understood is the extent to which this association is dependent on prestroke cognitive functioning. The study estimated the occurrence in poststroke dementia as a function of prestroke cognitive status and incident stroke. Methods—Study data […]
STROKEAHA: October 17, 2013 Background and Purpose—Compared with carotid endarterectomy (CEA), carotid angioplasty and stenting (CAS) is associated with a higher risk of procedural stroke or death especially in patients with symptomatic stenosis. However, after the perioperative period, risk is similar with both treatments, suggesting that CAS could be an acceptable option in selected patients. Methods—We […]
J Am Heart Assoc.: October 14, 2013 Background Hospital certification and recognition programs represent 2 independent but commonly used systems to distinguish hospitals, yet they have not been directly compared. This study assessed acute ischemic stroke quality of care measure conformity by hospitals receiving Primary Stroke Center (PSC) certification and those receiving the American Heart Association’s Get […]
Neurology: 10/9/13 Objective: To investigate whether cortical superficial siderosis (cSS) on MRI, especially if disseminated (involving more than 3 sulci), increases the risk of future symptomatic lobar intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) in cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA). Methods: European multicenter cohort study of 118 patients with CAA (104 with baseline symptomatic lobar ICH) diagnosed according to the Boston criteria. We […]
Neurology: October 4, 2013 Objective: To determine the rate of symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage (SIH) and in-hospital mortality among patients with acute ischemic stroke related to Chagas disease (CD) treated with IV tissue plasminogen activator (TPA). Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, consecutive stroke patients treated with IV TPA and routinely tested for CD were retrospectively selected from a […]
CIRCULATIONAHA: October 8, 2013 Background—As the association between atrial fibrillation (AF) and race has only been rigorously compared in population-based studies that dichotomized participants as White or Black, it is unclear whether White race confers elevated AF risk or Black race affords AF protection. Methods and Results—The Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project was used to […]
Springer: 10/8/13 This study was conducted to examine the outcomes in patients with prior stroke/transient ischemic attack (CVA/TIA) after atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation and the feasibility of discontinuing oral anticoagulation (OAC). Methods This study examined long-term outcomes following AF ablations in 108 patients with a history of prior thromboembolic CVA/TIA. Because of risks of OAC, we […]
JACC: 10/1/13 A Translational Proof-of-Concept Study in Patients With Metabolic Syndrome in Whom Post-Operative Atrial Fibrillation Develops Objectives This study sought to provide bedside evidence of the potential link between cardiac mitochondrial dysfunction and arrhythmia as reported in bench studies. Background Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a frequent complication of cardiac surgery. Underlying mechanisms of post-operative atrial fibrillation (POAF) remain largely unknown. […]
