Predictors of early mortality in patients with ischemic stroke

Abstract

Accurate predictors of early outcome in stroke patients have a number of important applications, such as introducing secondary prevention strategies, supporting treatment decisions or designing randomized clinical trials. Surprisingly, a generally accepted, reliable and well-validated mortality-prediction model is still unavailable. This review outlines the most important predictors of in-hospital mortality that could be assessed at admission to hospital emergency room within 24 h of ischemic stroke onset. A number of factors are discussed such as nonmodifiable factors (e.g., age, gender and genetic factors); type of stroke and its severity – measured by different clinical score scales; predictive models; laboratory markers; special neuroradiological and neurophysiological tests; and comorbid conditions at admission and quality of hospital care.

Keywords::

• 30-day mortality
• in-hospital mortality
• ischemic stroke
• predictors
• stroke outcome