Suda S, et al. - The effects of stroke-associated infection (SAI) were evaluated on patient mortality and functional outcome at 3 months after stroke onset. During the hospitalization period, SAI was found to be independently associated with 3-month poor functional outcome and mortality.

Methods

• The researchers retrospectively examined 809 consecutive patients with acute stroke (517 men and 292 women; median age, 72 years) who were admitted to their department between September 2014 and June 2016.
• They defined SAI as an infection diagnosed during the hospitalization period.
• They defined poor outcome as a modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score of 3-5 or death (mRS score of 6).
• Using a multivariate logistic regression analysis, the effect of SAI on functional outcome was evaluated.

Results

• A total of 169 patients (20.9%) had SAI.
• Among them, 106 patients (62.7%) had pneumonia, 23 (13.6%) had a urinary-tract infection, and 40 (23.7%) had other types of infection.
• Compared to patients without SAI, patients with SAI were found to be older, more likely to be female, had lower body mass indices, had higher stroke severity, and were more likely to have atrial fibrillation and a history of ischemic heart disease.
• In patients with SAI, poor functional outcome and mortality were more common than in patients without SAI (poor functional outcome 41.8 vs 4.8%, mortality 24.3 vs 3.9%, respectively).
• At 3 months after stroke onset, SAI was independently correlated with poor functional outcome [odds ratio (OR) 6.88; 95% confidence interval (CI) 3.72-12.73] and mortality (OR 4.45, 95% CI 2.27-8.72), after adjusting for age, sex, stroke severity, and various comorbidities.