title: Acute ischemic stroke in the very elderly Chinese: risk factors, hospital management and one-year outcome.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Little information is available on Asian patients over 80 years with stroke. We aimed to investigate characteristics of the very elderly ischemic stroke hospitalized patients in China.
  
  
  METHODS
  We prospectively enrolled consecutive patients with acute ischemic stroke from March, 2002 to October, 2008 into the analysis. Patients were divided into two groups: <80 years versus ≥80 years and risk factors, hospital management and one-year outcome were compared.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 2619 cases included, 302 (11.5%) patients were 80 years or older. Compared with patients <80 years, patients over 80 years old had higher rates of hypertension (66.2% versus 56.1%, p=0.001), atrial fibrillation (23.5% versus 14.5%, p=0.000), and coronary heart disease (13.6% versus 5.7%, p=0.000). In addition, they were less likely to have received transthoracic echocardiography (45.4% versus 55.4%, p=0.001), color Doppler of extracranial vessels (54.0% versus 61.2%, p=0.015), antiplatelet agents (80.8% versus 86.8%, p=0.004), or anticoagulants (4.0% versus 9.0%, p=0.003). After adjusting for sex and stroke severity on admission, the very elderly patients had higher case-fatality and disability rates at one year (33.8% versus 13.2%, p=0.000; 37.8% versus 20.9%, p=0.000; respectively).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In China, the proportion of the very elderly in hospitalized stroke population is lower than that in western countries whereas the most common risk factors seem similar. The hospital management for these patients is relatively insufficient and the long-term outcome is generally unfavorable compared with patients under 80 years old.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Sichuan University, Sichuan Province, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Deren
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Zilong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Hao
authors.forename: Wendan
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Tao
authors.forename: Fanyi
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Kong
authors.forename: Shihong
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Sen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Ming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000369:Aged, 80 and over / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D044466:Asian People; D002545:Brain Ischemia / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000628:therapy*; D002423:Cause of Death; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D004452:Echocardiography; D004562:Electrocardiography; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D020521:Stroke / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000628:therapy*; D016019:Survival Analysis; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014652:Vascular Diseases / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology