Discussion
In this large sample of patients from the NIH N3C data repository, we found that both IS and HS severity as measured by NIHSS was greater in patients with concurrent SARS-COV-2 throughout the entire first year of the pandemic. The association of increased ischemic stroke severity and SARS-COV-2 infection has been observed in previous studies.
4- Ntaios G
- Michel P
- Georgiopoulos G
- et al.
Characteristics and outcomes in patients with COVID-19 and acute ischemic stroke.
, 5- Topcuoglu MA
- Pektezel MY
- Oge DD
- et al.
Stroke mechanism in COVID-19 infection: a prospective case-control study.
, 6- Srivastava PK
- Zhang S
- Xian Y
- et al.
Treatment and outcomes of patients with ischemic stroke during COVID-19: an analysis from get with the guidelines-stroke.
, 7- Martí-Fàbregas J
- Guisado-Alonso D
- Delgado-Mederos R
- et al.
Impact of COVID-19 infection on the outcome of patients with ischemic stroke.
, 8- Pezzini A
- Grassi M
- Silvestrelli G
- et al.
SARS-CoV-2 infection and acute ischemic stroke in Lombardy, Italy.
, 9- Calmettes J
- Peres R
- Goncalves B
- et al.
Clinical outcome of acute ischemic strokes in patients with COVID-19.
However, prior analyses were limited to the early period of the pandemic or by comparison to historical controls. Additionally, previous studies of HS and SARS-COV-2 infection have been mostly limited to small samples from single centers.
SARS-COV-2 infection might result in increased stroke severity for several reasons. Reports in the literature suggest a biological link between SARS-COV-2 infection and severe stroke due to viral endothelitis and immunothrombosis.
17Acute viral illnesses and ischemic stroke: pathophysiological considerations in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic.
, 18- Klein RS
- Garber C
- Funk KE
- et al.
Neuroinflammation during RNA viral infections.
, 19- Shahjouei S
- Tsivgoulis G
- Farahmand G
- et al.
SARS-CoV-2 and stroke characteristics.
COVID-19 might affect stroke occurrence or severity through an associated systemic coagulopathy or endothelial cell-activating prothrombotic antibodies.
20COVID-19 and its implications for thrombosis and anticoagulation.
, Additionally, this observed increase in stroke severity measured by NIHSS may be related to the effects of systemic illness in the setting of COVID-19. A third possibility would be that there were differences between patients with and without COVID-19 due to alterations in stroke systems of care. However, our data demonstrates that this disparity in stroke severity and outcome continued throughout the pandemic even as stroke care utilization normalized. Finally, patient specific differences may exist between those with and without COVID-19. We addressed this possibility with a propensity score analysis that matched for clinical and demographic factors. Matching by site further mitigates the potential of confounding by the effects of illness trends in hospitals intermittently overwhelmed by COVID-19.
In addition to stroke severity, we also investigated important stroke outcomes including death and length of stay. Our study confirms what other studies have found; increased mortality in patients with both IS and HS with concurrent SARS-COV-2 infection.
4- Ntaios G
- Michel P
- Georgiopoulos G
- et al.
Characteristics and outcomes in patients with COVID-19 and acute ischemic stroke.
, 7- Martí-Fàbregas J
- Guisado-Alonso D
- Delgado-Mederos R
- et al.
Impact of COVID-19 infection on the outcome of patients with ischemic stroke.
, 15- de Havenon A
- Ney JP
- Callaghan B
- et al.
Characteristics and outcomes among US patients hospitalized for ischemic stroke before vs during the COVID-19 pandemic.
, 22- Mathew T
- John SK
- Sarma G
- et al.
COVID-19-related strokes are associated with increased mortality and morbidity: a multicenter comparative study from Bengaluru, South India.
, 23- Beyrouti R
- Best JG
- Chandratheva A
- et al.
Characteristics of intracerebral haemorrhage associated with COVID-19: a systematic review and pooled analysis of individual patient and aggregate data.
, 24Changes in characteristics, treatment and outcome in patients with hemorrhagic stroke during COVID-19.
, 25- Leasure AC
- Khan YM
- Iyer R
- et al.
Intracerebral hemorrhage in patients with COVID-19: an analysis from the COVID-19 cardiovascular disease registry.
Demographically, we found that the concurrent SARS-COV-2 IS group had more Hispanic or Latino, Black/African American Non-Hispanic, and Asian Non-Hispanic patients than the non-concurrent group. A previous study found racial disparity in the prevalence of stroke in SARS-COV-2 patients with a skew towards a higher rate of non-White patients with SARS-COV-2 having IS.
26- Lekoubou A
- Pelton M
- Ba DM
- et al.
Racial disparities in ischemic stroke among patients with COVID-19 in the United States.
While our study identifies higher proportions of Hispanic or Latino and Black/African American Non-Hispanic patients in the concurrent group, the structure of the N3C database matches SARS-CoV-2 infection cases and control (non-SARS-COV-2 infected patients) based on a 1:2 ratio for age group, sex, race, and ethnicity upon entry to the database from each participating site. This prevents us from drawing conclusions about the demographic differences in the US stroke population in general. Further study is needed to assess racial disparities in stroke prevalence, severity, and outcome.
Most patients with stroke and concurrent SARS-COV-2 infection were diagnosed with stroke on the same day as their positive SARS-COV-2 test. This is to be expected given the fact that testing for SARS-COV-2 infection has become largely routine at the time of admission to hospitals. However, what is interesting is the higher-than-normal rates of stroke in the weeks following the first positive SARS-COV-2 test. We see a logarithmic decline in stroke rates as we move away from the lab-positive index date, with rates normalizing at low levels about 40 days after a positive SARS-COV-2 test. There are no additional peaks observed. These data reveal a temporal relationship between SARS-COV-2 infection and stroke, suggesting that time of SARS-COV-2 infection is potential a risk factor for IS or HS.
This study has several limitations. First, we were unable to control for severity of COVID-19 illness. Admission to an ICU, IMV and ECMO may be reasonable biomarkers or surrogates of SARS-CoV-2 infection severity. However, patients suffering severe stroke may require admission to an ICU with need of IMV or ECMO as well, so we avoided using these as proxy indicators for SARS-CoV-2 infection severity. It is reasonable to expect that patients who are critically ill with COVID-19 and have a stroke might have a greater NIHSS due to difficulties interacting with the exam related to encephalopathy, intubation, or sedation that may accompany severe COVID-19 syndromes. Another limitation of our dataset is that only a small proportion of our entire sample had documented NIHSS on admission. There is concern that reporting bias might have affected results with NIHSS data missing more so in patients with COVID-19 than without (IS 84.7% vs 71.9% and HS 82.3% vs 87.6%). Although, we performed exact matching on enrollment site to control for differences in reporting practices that might vary across sites. Additionally, this study is limited by the retrospective design and the nature of EHR data that construct the N3C. Thus, our estimates of mortality may be affected by loss to follow up. Finally, while these data add to the literature by contributing an analysis spanning the first year of the pandemic, our results are not necessarily generalizable to subsequent COVID-19 variants and waves of the pandemic. This fact necessitates further research of other COVID-19 variants. Further work is also needed to define the treatment effects on outcomes in patients with stroke and concurrent SARS-COV-2 infection, especially stroke subtypes.
In conclusion, in this large multicenter dataset from the first year of the pandemic, we found that stroke severity, mortality, and length of stay were increased in patients with both acute ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke hospitalizations with concurrent SARS-COV-2 infection. Additionally, we found a temporal association of concomitant stroke and SARS-CoV-2 infection with rates of stroke being elevated for approximately 40 days after initial positive test. Further research is needed to better understand the underlying causes of these associations and to confirm whether these trends continued during the subsequent course of the pandemic.
Grant Support and Disclosures
Jackson Narrett: None.
Indika Mallawaarachchi: None.
Chad Aldridge: None.
Ethan Assefa: None.
Arti Patel: None.
Johanna Loomba: None.
Sarah Ratcliffe: None.
Ofer Sadan: None.
Teshamae Monteith: Other; Modest; Impel, Amgen, Eli Lilly, Other; Significant; Amgen, AbbVie.
Bradford Worrall: Other; Significant; American Academy of Neurology, 2018 Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Health University of Newcastle and Hunter Medical Research Institute Harrison, Research Grant; Significant; NINDS Grant: R21 NS106480 (Gastrointestinal Microbiome and STroke Outcomes NEtwork (GeMSTONE) Grant PI);, NINDS Grant: U24 NS107222 (Stroke Central Atlantic Network for Research co-PI StrokeNet RCC), NCATS Grant: KL2TR003016 (integrated Translational Health Institute of Virginia (iTHRIV) CTSA. co-PI for KL-2 grant), NIA Grant: R01AG072592 Cerebral small vessel disease burden and racial disparity in vascular cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease and its related dementias. co-Investigator.
Donald Brown: None.
Karen Johnston: Honoraria; Modest; ANA,AAN, AUPN, FDA, NINDS, Other Research Support; Modest; Biogen, Research Grant; Modest; NIH-NHLBI, Rivanna Medical, Research Grant; Significant; NIH-NINDS, NIH-NCATS, Diffusion Pharm.
Andrew Southerland: Expert Witness; Modest; Medicolegal consultation, vascular neurology, Other; Modest; U.S. Patent No. 10,846,370, U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/620,096 (BANDIT); Research Grant; Modest; Abbvie Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Research Grant; Significant; Diffusion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., American Heart Association/American Stroke Association.
Acknowledgments
N3C Attribution
The analyses described in this publication were conducted with data or tools accessed through the NCATS N3C Data Enclave covid.cd2h.org/enclave and supported by NCATS U24 TR002306. This research was possible because of the patients whose information is included within the data from participating organizations (covid.cd2h.org/dtas) and the organizations and scientists (covid.cd2h.org/duas) who have contributed to the on-going development of this community resource (cite this
https://doi.org/10.1093/jamia/ocaa196).
IRB
The N3C data transfer to NCATS is performed under a Johns Hopkins University Reliance Protocol # IRB00249128 or individual site agreements with NIH. The N3C Data Enclave is managed under the authority of the NIH; information can be found at
https://ncats.nih.gov/n3c/resources.
Individual Acknowledgements For Core Contributors
We gratefully acknowledge contributions from the following N3C core teams: (Asterisks indicate leads) • Principal Investigators: Melissa A. Haendel*, Christopher G. Chute*, Kenneth R. Gersing, Anita Walden
• Workstream, subgroup and administrative leaders: Melissa A. Haendel*, Tellen D. Bennett, Christopher G. Chute, David A. Eichmann, Justin Guinney, Warren A. Kibbe, Hongfang Liu, Philip R.O. Payne, Emily R. Pfaff, Peter N. Robinson, Joel H. Saltz, Heidi Spratt, Justin Starren, Christine Suver, Adam B. Wilcox, Andrew E. Williams, Chunlei Wu
• Key liaisons at data partner sites
• Regulatory staff at data partner sites
• Individuals at the sites who are responsible for creating the datasets and submitting data to N3C • Data Ingest and Harmonization Team: Christopher G. Chute*, Emily R. Pfaff*, Davera Gabriel, Stephanie S. Hong, Kristin Kostka, Harold P. Lehmann, Richard A. Moffitt, Michele Morris, Matvey B. Palchuk, Xiaohan Tanner Zhang, Richard L. Zhu
• Phenotype Team (Individuals who create the scripts that the sites use to submit their data, based on the COVID and Long COVID definitions): Emily R. Pfaff*, Benjamin Amor, Mark M. Bissell, Marshall Clark, Andrew T. Girvin, Stephanie S. Hong, Kristin Kostka, Adam M. Lee, Robert T. Miller, Michele Morris, Matvey B. Palchuk, Kellie M. Walters
• Project Management and Operations Team: Anita Walden*, Yooree Chae, Connor Cook, Alexandra Dest, Racquel R. Dietz, Thomas Dillon, Patricia A. Francis, Rafael Fuentes, Alexis Graves, Julie A. McMurry, Andrew J. Neumann, Shawn T. O'Neil, Usman Sheikh, Andréa M. Volz, Elizabeth Zampino
• Partners from NIH and other federal agencies: Christopher P. Austin*, Kenneth R. Gersing*, Samuel Bozzette, Mariam Deacy, Nicole Garbarini, Michael G. Kurilla, Sam G. Michael, Joni L. Rutter, Meredith Temple-O'Connor
• Analytics Team (Individuals who build the Enclave infrastructure, help create codesets, variables, and help Domain Teams and project teams with their datasets): Benjamin Amor*, Mark M. Bissell, Katie Rebecca Bradwell, Andrew T. Girvin, Amin Manna, Nabeel Qureshi
• Publication Committee Management Team: Mary Morrison Saltz*, Christine Suver*, Christopher G. Chute, Melissa A. Haendel, Julie A. McMurry, Andréa M. Volz, Anita Walden
• Publication Committee Review Team: Carolyn Bramante, Jeremy Richard Harper, Wenndy Hernandez, Farrukh M Koraishy, Federico Mariona, Amit Saha, Satyanarayana Vedula
Data Partners with Released Data
Stony Brook University — U24TR002306 • University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center — U54GM104938: Oklahoma Clinical and Translational Science Institute (OCTSI) • West Virginia University — U54GM104942: West Virginia Clinical and Translational Science Institute (WVCTSI) • University of Mississippi Medical Center — U54GM115428: Mississippi Center for Clinical and Translational Research (CCTR) • University of Nebraska Medical Center — U54GM115458: Great Plains IDeA-Clinical & Translational Research • Maine Medical Center — U54GM115516: Northern New England Clinical & Translational Research (NNE-CTR) Network • Wake Forest University Health Sciences — UL1TR001420: Wake Forest Clinical and Translational Science Institute • Northwestern University at Chicago — UL1TR001422: Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Science Institute (NUCATS) • University of Cincinnati — UL1TR001425: Center for Clinical and Translational Science and Training • The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston — UL1TR001439: The Institute for Translational Sciences • Medical University of South Carolina — UL1TR001450: South Carolina Clinical & Translational Research Institute (SCTR) • University of Massachusetts Medical School Worcester — UL1TR001453: The UMass Center for Clinical and Translational Science (UMCCTS) • University of Southern California — UL1TR001855: The Southern California Clinical and Translational Science Institute (SC CTSI) • Columbia University Irving Medical Center — UL1TR001873: Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research • George Washington Children's Research Institute — UL1TR001876: Clinical and Translational Science Institute at Children's National (CTSA-CN) • University of Kentucky — UL1TR001998: UK Center for Clinical and Translational Science • University of Rochester — UL1TR002001: UR Clinical & Translational Science Institute • University of Illinois at Chicago — UL1TR002003: UIC Center for Clinical and Translational Science • Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center — UL1TR002014: Penn State Clinical and Translational Science Institute • The University of Michigan at Ann Arbor — UL1TR002240: Michigan Institute for Clinical and Health Research • Vanderbilt University Medical Center — UL1TR002243: Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research • University of Washington — UL1TR002319: Institute of Translational Health Sciences • Washington University in St. Louis — UL1TR002345: Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences • Oregon Health & Science University — UL1TR002369: Oregon Clinical and Translational Research Institute • University of Wisconsin-Madison — UL1TR002373: UW Institute for Clinical and Translational Research • Rush University Medical Center — UL1TR002389: The Institute for Translational Medicine (ITM) • The University of Chicago — UL1TR002389: The Institute for Translational Medicine (ITM) • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill — UL1TR002489: North Carolina Translational and Clinical Science Institute • University of Minnesota — UL1TR002494: Clinical and Translational Science Institute • Children's Hospital Colorado — UL1TR002535: Colorado Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute • The University of Iowa — UL1TR002537: Institute for Clinical and Translational Science • The University of Utah — UL1TR002538: Uhealth Center for Clinical and Translational Science • Tufts Medical Center — UL1TR002544: Tufts Clinical and Translational Science Institute • Duke University — UL1TR002553: Duke Clinical and Translational Science Institute • Virginia Commonwealth University — UL1TR002649: C. Kenneth and Dianne Wright Center for Clinical and Translational Research • The Ohio State University — UL1TR002733: Center for Clinical and Translational Science • The University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine — UL1TR002736: University of Miami Clinical and Translational Science Institute • University of Virginia — UL1TR003015: iTHRIV Integrated Translational health Research Institute of Virginia • Carilion Clinic — UL1TR003015: iTHRIV Integrated Translational health Research Institute of Virginia • University of Alabama at Birmingham — UL1TR003096: Center for Clinical and Translational Science • Johns Hopkins University — UL1TR003098: Johns Hopkins Institute for Clinical and Translational Research • University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences — UL1TR003107: UAMS Translational Research Institute • Nemours — U54GM104941: Delaware CTR ACCEL Program • University Medical Center New Orleans — U54GM104940: Louisiana Clinical and Translational Science (LA CaTS) Center • University of Colorado Denver, Anschutz Medical Campus — UL1TR002535: Colorado Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute • Mayo Clinic Rochester — UL1TR002377: Mayo Clinic Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCaTS) • Tulane University — UL1TR003096: Center for Clinical and Translational Science • Loyola University Medical Center — UL1TR002389: The Institute for Translational Medicine (ITM) • Advocate Health Care Network — UL1TR002389: The Institute for Translational Medicine (ITM) • OCHIN — INV-018455: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation grant to Sage Bionetworks
Additional Data Partners Who Have Signed a DTA and Whose Data Release is Pending
The Rockefeller University — UL1TR001866: Center for Clinical and Translational Science • The Scripps Research Institute — UL1TR002550: Scripps Research Translational Institute • University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio — UL1TR002645: Institute for Integration of Medicine and Science • The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston — UL1TR003167: Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences (CCTS) • NorthShore University HealthSystem — UL1TR002389: The Institute for Translational Medicine (ITM) • Yale New Haven Hospital — UL1TR001863: Yale Center for Clinical Investigation • Emory University — UL1TR002378: Georgia Clinical and Translational Science Alliance • Weill Medical College of Cornell University — UL1TR002384: Weill Cornell Medicine Clinical and Translational Science Center • Montefiore Medical Center — UL1TR002556: Institute for Clinical and Translational Research at Einstein and Montefiore • Medical College of Wisconsin — UL1TR001436: Clinical and Translational Science Institute of Southeast Wisconsin • University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center — UL1TR001449: University of New Mexico Clinical and Translational Science Center • George Washington University — UL1TR001876: Clinical and Translational Science Institute at Children's National (CTSA-CN) • Stanford University — UL1TR003142: Spectrum: The Stanford Center for Clinical and Translational Research and Education • Regenstrief Institute — UL1TR002529: Indiana Clinical and Translational Science Institute • Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center — UL1TR001425: Center for Clinical and Translational Science and Training • Boston University Medical Campus — UL1TR001430: Boston University Clinical and Translational Science Institute • The State University of New York at Buffalo — UL1TR001412: Clinical and Translational Science Institute • Aurora Health Care — UL1TR002373: Wisconsin Network For Health Research • Brown University — U54GM115677: Advance Clinical Translational Research (Advance-CTR) • Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey — UL1TR003017: New Jersey Alliance for Clinical and Translational Science • Loyola University Chicago — UL1TR002389: The Institute for Translational Medicine (ITM) • #N/A — UL1TR001445: Langone Health's Clinical and Translational Science Institute • Children's Hospital of Philadelphia — UL1TR001878: Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics • University of Kansas Medical Center — UL1TR002366: Frontiers: University of Kansas Clinical and Translational Science Institute • Massachusetts General Brigham — UL1TR002541: Harvard Catalyst • Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai — UL1TR001433: ConduITS Institute for Translational Sciences • Ochsner Medical Center — U54GM104940: Louisiana Clinical and Translational Science (LA CaTS) Center • HonorHealth — None (Voluntary) • University of California, Irvine — UL1TR001414: The UC Irvine Institute for Clinical and Translational Science (ICTS) • University of California, San Diego — UL1TR001442: Altman Clinical and Translational Research Institute • University of California, Davis — UL1TR001860: UCDavis Health Clinical and Translational Science Center • University of California, San Francisco — UL1TR001872: UCSF Clinical and Translational Science Institute • University of California, Los Angeles — UL1TR001881: UCLA Clinical Translational Science Institute • University of Vermont — U54GM115516: Northern New England Clinical & Translational Research (NNE-CTR) Network • Arkansas Children's Hospital — UL1TR003107: UAMS Translational Research Institute