Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Biteker, Murat
• Tekkeşin, Ahmet İlker
• Dayan, Akın
• Mısırlı, Cemile Handan

Titel

A novel prognostic marker in acute ischemic stroke: small pericardial effusion

Ist Teil von

• Journal of neurology, 2012-11, Vol.259 (11), p.2354-2359

Ort / Verlag

Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag

Erscheinungsjahr

2012

Quelle

MEDLINE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The study aimed to evaluate the prognostic importance of small pericardial effusion (SPE) found on echocardiography in a cohort of patients hospitalized for acute ischemic stroke. We prospectively followed a series of 408 consecutive first-ever acute ischemic stroke patients aged ≥50 years who were admitted to the hospital within 24 h of the onset of stroke symptoms. All of the patients underwent transthoracic echocardiography within the first 48 h. Exclusion criteria were cardiothoracic surgery or acute myocardial infarction within the previous 6 months, a moderate or greater pericardial effusion (>1 cm if circumferential), and inadequate visualization of the pericardial space. The patients were followed for 1 year or until death, whichever came first. SPE was noted in 64 (15.7 %) of the patients. Mortality at 1 year was greater for patients with a small effusion ( n  = 21, 32.8 %) compared to those without an effusion ( n  = 40, 11.6 %, p  < 0.001). After adjustment for age, demographics, medical history, and other echocardiographic findings, SPE remained associated with higher mortality (OR 2.515; 95 % CI 1.188–5.477; p  = 0.008). This study is the first to demonstrate that the presence of SPE is associated with increased mortality in patients with first-ever acute ischemic stroke.