Abstract
BACKGROUND: Patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) have been found to be at an increased risk of suffering a stroke. However, research on the impact of DM on stroke outcomes is limited. OBJECTIVES: We aimed to examine the influence of DM on outcomes in ischaemic (IS) and haemorrhagic stroke (HS) patients. METHODS: We included 608,890 consecutive stroke patients from the Thailand national insurance registry. In-hospital mortality, sepsis, pneumonia, acute kidney injury (AKI), urinary tract infection (UTI) and cardiovascular events were evaluated using logistic regressions. Long-term analysis was performed on first-stroke patients with a determined pathology (n = 398,663) using Royston-Parmar models. Median follow-ups were 4.21 and 4.78 years for IS and HS, respectively. All analyses were stratified by stroke sub-type. RESULTS: Mean age (SD) was 64.3 (13.7) years, 44.9% were female with 61% IS, 28% HS and 11% undetermined strokes. DM was associated with in-hospital death, pneumonia, sepsis, AKI and cardiovascular events (odds ratios ranging from 1.13-1.78, p < 0.01) in both stroke types. In IS, DM was associated with long-term mortality and recurrence throughout the follow-up: HR(max) (99% CI) at t = 4108 days: 1.54 (1.27, 1.86) and HR (99% CI) = 1.27(1.23,1.32), respectively. In HS, HR(max) (t = 4108 days) for long-term mortality was 2.10 (1.87, 2.37), significant after day 14 post-discharge. HR(max) (t = 455) for long-term recurrence of HS was 1.29 (1.09, 1.53), significant after day 116 post-discharge. CONCLUSIONS: Regardless of stroke type, DM was associated with in-hospital death and complications, long-term mortality and stroke recurrence.