There were almost a third fewer cases of stroke and mini-stroke in hospitals across the US in March and April this year compared to the same time in 2019. This is because many patients may have been less likely to visit emergency services for fear of catching the virus.
A team of researchers across the US collected data on admissions for stroke and mini-strokes. They then compared the total number of weekly hospital admissions for stroke for January to April 2019 and 2020, at five US specialist stroke centres in Boston, New York City, Providence and Seattle, which all had early outbreaks of the virus.
The researchers also collected data on emergency department stroke alerts, which showed the number of people arriving at emergency departments with stroke-like symptoms within 24 hours.
They found that the decline in stroke admissions and emergency department stroke alerts fell in line with the recommendations in late March to the public to stay at home.
The greatest fall in stroke admissions was between 23 March and 19 April, when there were 31 per cent fewer admissions.
At three of the five stroke centres with stroke alert data for 2019 and 2020, emergency department stroke alerts in late March and April fell by 46 per cent.
The researchers, whose findings are published in the journal Stroke and Vascular Neurology, argue that this could have led to worst health outcomes for people who had a stroke, and urge these people to now seek medical care.
“Acute stroke therapies are time-sensitive, so decreased healthcare access or utilisation may lead to more disabling or fatal strokes, or more severe non-neurological complications related to stroke,” the paper states.
“Our findings underscore the indirect effects of this pandemic. Public health officials, hospital systems and healthcare providers must continue to encourage patients with stroke to seek acute care during this crisis.”
