A new study found that Asian Americans had more severe ischemic strokes, experienced greater hemorrhagic complications, and received less intravenous t-PA treatment than White patients reports MedPageToday.
The main author of the study, Sarah Song with the Department of Neurological Sciences at Rush Medical College , compared clinical characteristics, outcomes and treatment patterns of 64,337 Asian Americans and 1,707,962 White patients with acute ischemic strokes.
After adjusting patient and hospital variables in the analysis, results showed that Asian Americans demonstrated greater stroke severity compared with White patients—experiencing higher in-hospital mortality, longer lengths in hospital stays, and less-likely independent ambulation following discharge, which researchers reported in JAMA Neurology. The data for the study came from the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association.
Dr. Song sees this as a necessary catalyst for additional research on clinical care and outcomes for Asian Americans.
“This is just one study, but it’s alarming,” Dr. Song told MedPage Today. “Asian Americans are the most rapidly growing ethnic group in the country. This study is a call to action that we need more research in this population.”
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Last year, Dr. Song presented some of these findings in preliminary research at the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference 2018. Song said in a statement about that earlier study, “This study highlights the need for more focused research, improved stroke prevention and possibly different treatment strategies for Asian Americans” reports NBC News.
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