Abstract
Background: Stroke is still a heavy burden to our society. We have developed a stroke databank system since 1999 to standardize stroke therapy in acute stage and verify the evidence of treatment in Japanese stroke patients.Methods: We analyzed the data of more than 100,000 patients with acute stroke registered in Japan Standard Stroke Registry from 1999 to 2012. We focused on the chronological changes in stroke patient data.Results: Ischemic stroke was divided into three subtypes; 31% of patients had atherosclerotic, 29% had lacunar stroke, and 26% had cardioembolic stroke. Only the prevalence of cardioembolic stroke increased over the years. The incidence of cardioembolic stroke was high in aged people; 30% of stroke patients of more than 80 years had cardioembolic stroke. The time interval between stroke onset and hospital visit did not change chronologically except for transient ischemic attack, which showed increased ratio of early visit within 2 hours after stroke onset. The severity of illness became milder in recent years for ischemic stroke, but not for hemorrhagic stroke. On the other hand, modified Rankin Scale at discharge improved only for atherosclerotic stroke in recent years, while other types of stroke did not show improvement in prognosis at discharge.Conclusion: These data indicate the importance for prevention of cardioembolic stroke in aged people and social education for early detection of stroke symptoms and hospital visit.
