Anemia in relation to ischemic stroke outcomes

Objective: Acute ischemic stroke patients with anemia have worse outcomes compared to those non-anemia patients. Since many researches in European and America have found that patients with anemia have worse outcomes after stroke, we examined whether anemia associate with ischemic stroke outcome in our country. Methods: We prospectively studied 459 patients enrolled in Neurology department of First Affiliated Hospital to Zhengzhou University, China. Our study started from September 2011 to August 2012 and follow-up was completed in February 2013. We explored the relationship of anemia with clinical outcome at 6 months, as measured by the modified Rankin Scale (mRS). Logistic regression was used to evaluate the independent effect of anemia on clinical outcome. Results: Anemia was associated with worse 6-month outcomes in univariate analysis (p<0.001). Anemia remained independently associated with poor outcome after adjustment for comorbid disease, stroke severity, age, and sex. Conclusions: Anemia by World Health Organization criteria was independently associated with worse 6-month outcomes after acute ischemic stroke.