The Change in Acute Ischemic Stroke Numbers in the Emergency Service During Early Phase of COVID -19 Pandemic

Year 2022, Volume: 8 Issue: 1, 139 - 145, 25.02.2022

Abdussamed Vural , İskender Aksoy , Mehmet Ekiz

https://doi.org/10.19127/mbsjohs.1054605

Cited By: 2

Abstract

Objective: Although the actual relationship between COVID -19 and the incidence of stroke has not yet been clearly defined, various potential mechanisms such as hypercoagulation or viral infecton burden have been reported as risk factors that can increase the risk of stroke. However, various anecdotal reports have emphasized the falling rate of new ischemic stroke diagnoses during period of COVID-19. This study was conducted to estimate the change in the number of new stroke diagnoses and evaluate the approximate causes of such situations during the early period of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Methods: In this retrospective observational descriptive study, the patients were divided into two groups as January-February 2020 (Pre-COVID−19) and March-April 2020 (COVID-19 Period), based on when the first COVID-19 case was reported in Turkey in March 2020. Patients who were admitted to the emergency department (ED) between 01 January 2019 and 30 April 2019 and diagnosed with ischemic cerebrovascular disease were included as the control group to estimate the number of cases predicted for 2020. The data of the groups were retrospectively analyzed in terms of the number of stroke admissions and demographic features.
Results: Among the 274 patients diagnosed with acute ischemic stroke during the 4-month study period, 112 (40.9%) were detected during the COVID-19 period. Considering the linear relationship between the number of patients diagnosed with ischemic stroke in January-February 2019 and March-April 2019 in the control group of the study, this number was expected to be 163 in March-April 2020, since the number of patients with ischemic stroke diagnosed in January-February 2020 was 162. While it was determined that a 25.35% decrease had occurred in January-February 2020 compared to the January-February 2019, it was determined that a 48.9% decrease had occurred in March-April 2020 compared to the same period of the previous year.
Conclusion: This study showed that the number of patients admitted to the hospital with a diagnosis of ischemic stroke in the March-April 2020 decreased statistically significantly compared to the pre-pandemic period of the same year.

Keywords

Coronavirus, COVID-19, epidemiology, incidence, ischemic stroke

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