Ischemic Bowel Disease and Risk of Stroke: A One-Year Follow-up Study

Abstract

Ischemic bowel disease and stroke have been noted to have shared pathomechanisms. However, data regarding the stroke occurrence following ischemic bowel disease are still lacking. The aim of this study is to explore the risk of stroke in patients with ischemic bowel disease during a one-year follow-up period in Taiwan. Data used in this study were retrieved from the 'Longitudinal Health Insurance Database 2000. Five hundred sixty-nine patients hospitalized with ischemic bowel disease were included as the study group, and 3414 subjects, matched by age and gender, were randomly extracted as a comparison group. Cox proportional hazards regression analysis was performed to test the relationship of ischemic bowel disease and subsequent stroke during the one-year follow-up period. The incidence rate of stroke among the sampled subjects during the 30-day, 90-day, and 365-day follow-up period was 1·24, 0·76, and 0·43 per 10 person-years. The adjusted hazard ratio for stroke for those patients with ischemic bowel disease within 30-, 90-, and 365-day follow-up periods was found to be 3·71 (95% confidence interval = 1·89-7·27), 2·11 (95% confidence interval = 1·22-3·66), and 1·70 (95% confidence interval = 1·14-2·52) times that of matched comparisons, respectively. The adjusted hazard ratio of ischemic stroke for patients with ischemic bowel disease was found to be 5·29 during the 30-day follow-up period than comparisons. We found ischemic bowel disease to be significantly associated with stroke occurrence.