Original ArticleVenous Thromboembolism in the Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Acute Ischemic Stroke Population: Incidence and Patterns of Prophylaxis
Section snippets
Data
This is a retrospective evaluation of patient data entered prospectively into the Get With The Guidelines–Stroke (GWTG-S) registry. The GWTG-S program is an ongoing, prospective, observational database provided by the American Stroke Association/American Heart Association (ASA/AHA). Outcome Sciences, Inc is the data collection and coordination center for the GWTG-S program. Details of the design and quality control processes associated with the program have been described.3, 4 Data are entered
Results
Descriptive statistics for the 149,916 patients who met criteria for the analysis cohort are provided in Table 1. The median age of the patients was 75 years (25th-75th percentiles: 63-84). Just over half were women (55%), and the vast majority were white (71%). The median admission National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score was 8 (25th-75th percentiles: 3-15). The most common medical comorbidities were hypertension (82%), dyslipidemia (41%), and diabetes mellitus (34%).
Discussion
Stroke is known to be associated with an increased incidence of VTE. Published rates of clinically evident DVT and PE in the stroke population vary from a low of 0.2% to 10%6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 to a high of 15% to 80%.18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28 As expected, the method used for VTE detection appears to dramatically influence the incidence rate; a 2004 study by Kelly et al18 reported an overall VTE incidence of 40% with the use of magnetic resonance imaging
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The Get With The Guidelines–Stroke (GWTG-S) program is currently supported in part by a charitable contribution from Ortho-McNeil. GWTG-S has been funded in the past through support from Boeringher-Ingelheim, Merck, Bristol-Myers Squib/Sanofi Pharmaceutical Partnership, and the American Heart Association Pharmaceutical Roundtable. Sponsors did not participate in the design, analysis, manuscript preparation or approval for this project.