Implementation of secondary stroke prevention protocol for ischaemic stroke patients in primary care

Long term clinical outcomes of patients with ischemic stroke in primary care - a 9-year retrospective study

Background

We aim to document the long-term outcomes of ischemic stroke patients and explore the potential risk factors for recurrent cardiovascular events and all-cause mortality in primary care.

Methods

A retrospective cohort study performed at two general out-patient clinics (GOPCs) under Hospital Authority (HA) in Hong Kong (HK). Ischemic stroke patients with at least two consecutive follow-up visits during the recruitment period (1/1–30/6/2010) were included. Patients were followed up regularly till the date of recurrent stroke, cardiovascular event, death or 31/12/2018. The primary outcome was the occurrence of recurrent cerebrovascular event including transient ischemic stroke (TIA), ischemic stroke or hemorrhagic stroke. The secondary outcomes were all-cause mortality and coronary artery disease (CAD). We fit cox proportional hazard model adjusting death as competing risk factor to estimate the cause-specific hazard ratio (csHR).

Results

A total of 466 patients (mean age, 71.5 years) were included. During a median follow-up period of 8.7 years, 158 patients (33.9%) died. Eighty patients (17.2%) had recurrent stroke and 57 (12.2%) patients developed CAD. Age was an independent risk factor for recurrent stroke, CAD and death. Statin therapy at baseline had a protective effect for recurrent stroke (csHR = 0.476; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.285–0.796, P = 0.005) after adjusting death as a competing risk factor and all-cause mortality (HR = 0.693, 95% CI 0.486–0.968, P = 0.043). In addition, female sex, antiplatelet and a higher diastolic blood pressure (DBP) at baseline were also independent predictors for survival.

Conclusions

Long term prognosis of ischemic stroke patients in primary care is favorable. Use of statin was associated with a significant decrease in stroke recurrence and mortality. Patients who died had a significant lower DBP at baseline, highlighted the need to consider both systolic and diastolic blood pressure in our daily practice.

Profile and outcome of post stroke patients managed at selected public primary care health centres in Peninsular Malaysia: A retrospective observational study

Data on post stroke outcomes in developing countries are scarce due to uncoordinated healthcare delivery systems. In Malaysia, the national stroke clinical practice guideline does not address transfer of care and longer term post stroke care beyond tertiary care. Hence, post stroke care delivery may be delivered at either tertiary or primary care facilities. This study aimed at describing patients' characteristics and outcomes of post stroke care delivered by the primary care teams at public primary care healthcentres across Peninsular Malaysia. Multi staged sampling was done to select public primary care health centres to recruit post stroke patients. At each health centre, convenience sampling was done to recruit adult patients (≥18 years) who received post stroke care between July-December 2012. Baseline measurements were recorded at recruitment and retrospective medical record review was done simultaneously, for details on medical and / or rehabilitation treatment at health centre. Changes in the measurements for post stroke care were compared using paired t-tests and Wilcoxon Rank test where appropriate. Total of 151 patients were recruited from ten public primary care healthcentres. The mean age at stroke presentation was 55.8 ± 9.8 years. Median duration of follow up was 2.3 (IQR 5.1) years. Majority co-resided with a relative (80.8%), and a family member was primary caregiver (75.%). Eleven percent were current smokers. Almost 71.0% of patients achieved BP ≤ 140/90 mmHg. Only 68.9% of the patients had been referred for neurorehabilitation. Percentage of recorded data was highest for blood pressure (88.1%) while lowest was HbA1c (43.0%). For clinical outcomes, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, triglyceride level and calculated GFR (eGFR) showed statistically significant changes during follow up (p < 0.05). Post stroke care at public primary care healthcentres showed benefits in stroke risk factors control (i.e. hypertension and dyslipidaemia) but deterioration in renal function. A more structured coordination is needed to optimise post stroke care beyond acute phase management for patients who reside at home in the community.