title: Central nervous system infections and stroke -- a population-based analysis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Chronic central nervous system (CNS) infections have been found to associate with cerebrovascular complications. Acute CNS infections are more common than chronic CNS infections, but whether they could increase the risk of vascular diseases has not been studied.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study cohort comprised all adult patients with diagnoses of CNS infections from Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database during 2000-2009 (n = 533). The comparison group were matched by age, sex, urbanization, diagnostic year, and vascular risk factors of cases (cases and controls = 1:5). Patients were tracked for at least 1 year. Kaplan-Meier analysis was used to compare the risk of stroke and acute myocardial infarction (AMI) after adjusting censoring subjects.
  
  
  RESULTS
  After adjusting the patients demographic characteristics and comorbidities, the risk of patients with CNS infections developing stroke was 2.75-3.44 times greater than their comparison group. More than 70% of the stroke events were occurring within 1 year after CNS infections. The risk of AMI was not found as we compared patients with and without CNS infections.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The population-based cohort study suggested that adult patients with CNS infections have higher risk to develop stroke but not AMI, and the risk is marked within a year after infections.
authors.affiliation: School of Health Care Administration, College of Public Health and Nutrition, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: L-N
authors.initials: LN
authors.lastname: Chien
authors.forename: N-F
authors.initials: NF
authors.lastname: Chi
authors.forename: C-J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: H-Y
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Chiou
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D002494:Central Nervous System Infections / Q000150:complications* / Q000191:economics / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D018672:Community Health Planning; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009313:National Health Programs / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012737:Sex Factors; D020521:Stroke / Q000191:economics / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology*; D013624:Taiwan; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed
keywords: cerebrovascular diseases; infections; strokes