Background: There are few published data on risk factors for stroke in patients with non-ST-elevation acute coronary syndrome (ACS). We investigated prognostic factors for stroke in 2 large cohorts of patients from the Organization to Assess Strategies for Ischemic Syndromes (OASIS) registry (8010) and the OASIS-2 trial (10 141).
Methods and results: A total of 18 151 patients with non-ST-elevation ACS were enrolled in the OASIS program. Data from these 2 studies were pooled (a test for heterogeneity was nonsignificant, P=0.34). Overall, 238 patients (1.3%) had a stroke over a 6-month follow-up. Those who experienced stroke had a 4-fold increase in 6-month mortality (27.0% versus 6.3%, P<0.001). A Cox multivariate regression analysis identified CABG surgery as the most important predictor of stroke (hazard ratio [HR], 4.6), followed by history of stroke (HR, 2.3), diabetes mellitus (HR, 1.7), older age (HR, 1.6 per 10-year increase), higher heart rate (HR, 1.1 per 10-bpm increase), and on-site catheterization facility (HR, 1.4). There was no significant excess in stroke in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (P=0.21). Patients who underwent early CABG surgery were at a substantially increased risk compared with those who had later CABG (3.3% versus 1.6%; HR, 2.1; P=0.003) or who had no surgery (3.3% versus 1.1%; HR, 3.95; P=0.0001).
Conclusions: In this large cohort of patients with ACS, stroke was an uncommon but serious event associated with high mortality. The performance of early CABG surgery was a powerful independent predictor of stroke.