Predicting In-hospital Mortality Using D-Dimer in COVID-19 Patients With Acute Ischemic Stroke.

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been associated with coagulopathy, and D-dimer levels have been used to predict disease severity. However, the role of D-dimer in predicting mortality in COVID-19 patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS) remains incompletely characterized. Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study using the Optum® de-identified COVID-19 Electronic Health Record dataset. Patients were included if they were 18 or older, had been hospitalized within 7 days of confirmed COVID-19 positivity from March 1, 2020 to November 30, 2020. We determined the optimal threshold of D-dimer to predict in-hospital mortality and compared risks of in-hospital mortality between patients with D-dimer levels below and above the cutoff. Risk ratios (RRs) were estimated adjusting for baseline characteristics and clinical variables. Results: Among 15,250 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 positivity, 285 presented with AIS at admission (2%). Patients with AIS were older [70 (60-79) vs. 64 (52-75), p < 0.001] and had greater D-dimer levels at admission [1.42 (0.76-3.96) vs. 0.94 (0.55-1.81) µg/ml FEU, p < 0.001]. Peak D-dimer level was a good predictor of in-hospital mortality among all patients [c-statistic 0.774 (95% CI 0.764-0.784)] and among patients with AIS [c-statistic 0.751 (95% CI 0.691-0.810)]. Among AIS patients, the optimum cutoff was identified at 5.15 µg/ml FEU with 73% sensitivity and 69% specificity. Elevated peak D-dimer level above this cut-off was associated with almost 3 times increased mortality [adjusted RR 2.89 (95% CI 1.87-4.47), p < 0.001]. Conclusions: COVID-19 patients with AIS present with greater D-dimer levels. Thresholds for outcomes prognostication should be higher in this population.

Global Impact of COVID-19 on Stroke Care and IV Thrombolysis.

OBJECTIVE: To measure the global impact of COVID-19 pandemic on volumes of IV thrombolysis (IVT), IVT transfers, and stroke hospitalizations over 4 months at the height of the pandemic (March 1 to June 30, 2020) compared with 2 control 4-month periods. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional, observational, retrospective study across 6 continents, 70 countries, and 457 stroke centers. Diagnoses were identified by their ICD-10 codes or classifications in stroke databases. RESULTS: There were 91,373 stroke admissions in the 4 months immediately before compared to 80,894 admissions during the pandemic months, representing an 11.5% (95% confidence interval [CI] -11.7 to -11.3, p < 0.0001) decline. There were 13,334 IVT therapies in the 4 months preceding compared to 11,570 procedures during the pandemic, representing a 13.2% (95% CI -13.8 to -12.7, p < 0.0001) drop. Interfacility IVT transfers decreased from 1,337 to 1,178, or an 11.9% decrease (95% CI -13.7 to -10.3, p = 0.001). Recovery of stroke hospitalization volume (9.5%, 95% CI 9.2-9.8, p < 0.0001) was noted over the 2 later (May, June) vs the 2 earlier (March, April) pandemic months. There was a 1.48% stroke rate across 119,967 COVID-19 hospitalizations. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection was noted in 3.3% (1,722/52,026) of all stroke admissions. CONCLUSIONS: The COVID-19 pandemic was associated with a global decline in the volume of stroke hospitalizations, IVT, and interfacility IVT transfers. Primary stroke centers and centers with higher COVID-19 inpatient volumes experienced steeper declines. Recovery of stroke hospitalization was noted in the later pandemic months.

Endovascular thrombectomy time metrics in the era of COVID-19: observations from the Society of Vascular and Interventional Neurology Multicenter Collaboration.

BACKGROUND: Unprecedented workflow shifts during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic have contributed to delays in acute care delivery, but whether it adversely affected endovascular thrombectomy metrics in acute large vessel occlusion (LVO) is unknown. METHODS: We performed a retrospective review of observational data from 14 comprehensive stroke centers in nine US states with acute LVO. EVT metrics were compared between March to July 2019 against March to July 2020 (primary analysis), and between state-specific pre-peak and peak COVID-19 months (secondary analysis), with multivariable adjustment. RESULTS: Of the 1364 patients included in the primary analysis (51% female, median NIHSS 14 [IQR 7-21], and 74% of whom underwent EVT), there was no difference in the primary outcome of door-to-puncture (DTP) time between the 2019 control period and the COVID-19 period (median 71 vs 67 min, P=0.10). After adjustment for variables associated with faster DTP, and clustering by site, there remained a trend toward shorter DTP during the pandemic (ßadj=-73.2, 95% CI -153.8-7.4, Pp=0.07). There was no difference in DTP times according to local COVID-19 peaks vs pre-peak months in unadjusted or adjusted multivariable regression (ßadj=-3.85, 95% CI -36.9-29.2, P=0.80). In this final multivariable model (secondary analysis), faster DTP times were significantly associated with transfer from an outside institution (ßadj=-46.44, 95% CI -62.8 to - -30.0, P<0.01) and higher NIHSS (ßadj=-2.15, 95% CI -4.2to - -0.1, P=0.05). CONCLUSIONS: In this multi-center study, there was no delay in EVT among patients treated for intracranial occlusion during the COVID-19 era compared with the pre-COVID era.