Stroke incidence related to PCI steady over 15 years

By Kelley Luckstein

Mayo Clinic researchers are reporting that rates of stroke and transient ischemic attack (TIA) related to PCI at their institution have remained steady over the past 15 years, at around 0.39%.

They interpret the results as good news. "Despite the fact that we're dealing with an older, sicker population, with more complex disease, the incidence of PCI-related stroke remains unchanged," senior author Dr Rajiv Gulati (Mayo Clinic Foundation, Rochester, MN) said in an interview.

At highest risk were older patients, females, those with recent MI, intracoronary thrombus, or significant renal impairment, and those undergoing multivessel PCI, Gulati reported.

"This gives us the ability to identify people at higher risk, and then, forewarned, we can be on the lookout for stroke when it does happen and activate our protocols immediately to try to deal with the event," he said.

The Heart.org, by Susan Jeffrey, 11/20/09