LAUSR

BACKGROUND Patients with ischaemic stroke are considered a very-high risk population for subsequent cardiovascular events and guidelines recommend intensive preventive strategies. In contrast, there is no clear recommendation that patients with haemorrhagic stroke should also be regarded as a very-high cardiovascular risk population. OBJECTIVE To compare the risk of subsequent cardiovascular morbidity/mortality between patients with incident haemorrhagic versus ischaemic stroke. METHODS Patients aged >18 years with incident haemorrhagic or ischaemic stroke between 1998-2017, and no prior history of serious vascular event were identified from UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD-GOLD) linked to Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data. RESULTS The cohort included 32,091 patients with an overall follow-up of 381,237 person-years (median: 11.8 years). After adjusting for potential confounders, patients with incident haemorrhagic stroke had no significantly different risk of subsequent cardiovascular morbidity compared with patients with incident ischaemic stroke - CHD [HR:0.86, 95%CI:0.56-1.32], recurrent stroke [HR:0.92, 95%CI:0.83-1.02], PVD [HR:1.15, 95%CI:0.56-2.38], or heart failure [HR:1.03, 95%CI:0.61-1.74]. Patients with incident haemorrhagic stroke had significantly higher risk of subsequent CVD-related mortality [HR:2.35, 95%CI:2.04-2.72] and all-cause mortality [HR:2.16, 95%CI: 1.94-2.41]. Propensity-score matched analysis of 1,039 patients with haemorrhagic stroke and 1,039 with ischaemic stroke showed similar risk in subsequent cardiovascular morbidity - CHD [stratified hazard ratio (sHR):0.92, 95%CI:0.55-1.54], recurrent stroke [sHR:0.93, 95%CI:0.82-1.02)], PVD [sHR:1.04 95%CI:0.45-2.41], or heart failure [HR:0.71, 95%CI:0.39-1.27]. CONCLUSIONS The risk of subsequent cardiovascular events is similar between patients with incident haemorrhagic or ischaemic stroke. Patients with previous haemorrhagic stroke should be regarded as a population at very-high risk of subsequent CVD.