title: The impact of lesion location and lesion size on poststroke infection frequency.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Infections in patients with stroke are common and significantly affect outcome. Various predictors of poststroke infections were determined, such as degree of neurological impairment and implementation of therapeutic interventions. The authors investigated whether stroke location and stroke size are independent risk factors for poststroke infections.
  
  
  METHODS
  591 patients with acute stroke who were treated on our stroke unit were included in a prospective observational study. Predefined endpoints were pneumonia, urinary-tract infection (UTI) and other infections. The OR of infections was calculated for various stroke locations, stroke lateralisation and three categories of stroke size. Logistic regression models were used to adjust for factors significantly associated with poststroke infections in a single-factor analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In the single-factor analysis, the left anterior cerebral artery territory was associated with pneumonia. After adjustment for relevant covariates, this association was no longer statistically significant. Stroke lateralisation showed no association with infection frequency. The largest stroke size was positively associated with pneumonia (OR 3.5, p<0.001). The smallest lesion size was significantly less associated with the occurrence of UTI (OR 0.4, p<0.01).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this study, lesion size is an independent risk factor for the development of poststroke infection. Particular brain regions associated with infections could not be determined.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University of Münster, Münster, Germany. minnerup@uni-muenster.de
authors.forename: Jens
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Minnerup
authors.forename: Heike
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wersching
authors.forename: Benjamin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Brokinkel
authors.forename: Rainer
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dziewas
authors.forename: Peter Ulrich
authors.initials: PU
authors.lastname: Heuschmann
authors.forename: Darius Günther
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Nabavi
authors.forename: Erich Bernd
authors.initials: EB
authors.lastname: Ringelstein
authors.forename: Wolf-Rüdiger
authors.initials: WR
authors.lastname: Schäbitz
authors.forename: Martin Andreas
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Ritter
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003680:Deglutition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D004401:Dysarthria / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D005158:Facial Paralysis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011014:Pneumonia / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D020521:Stroke / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000473:pathology*; D014552:Urinary Tract Infections / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology*