Decline in stroke alerts and hospitalisations during the COVID-19 pandemic

Bibliographic Details
Title: Decline in stroke alerts and hospitalisations during the COVID-19 pandemic
Authors: Tina Burton, Tracy Madsen, Malveeka Sharma, Vasileios-Arsenios Lioutas, Judith Clark, Jillian O'Sullivan, Mitchell S. V. Elkind, Joshua Z. Willey, Randolph S. Marshall, Magdy H. Selim, David Greer, David L. Tirschwell, Amelia Boehme, Hugo J. Aparicio
Source: Stroke and Vascular Neurology, Vol , Iss
Publisher Information: BMJ Publishing Group.
Collection: LCC:Neurology. Diseases of the nervous system
Subject Terms: Neurology. Diseases of the nervous system, RC346-429
More Details: Introduction Patients with stroke-like symptoms may be underutilising emergency medical services and avoiding hospitalisation during the COVID-19 pandemic. We investigated a decline in admissions for stroke and transient ischaemic attack (TIA) and emergency department (ED) stroke alert activations.Methods We retrospectively compiled total weekly hospital admissions for stroke and TIA between 31 December 2018 and 21 April 2019 versus 30 December 2019 and 19 April 2020 at five US tertiary academic comprehensive stroke centres in cities with early COVID-19 outbreaks in Boston, New York City, Providence and Seattle. We collected available data on ED stroke alerts, stroke severity using the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) and time from symptom onset to hospital arrival.Results Compared with 31 December 2018 to 21 April 2019, a decline in stroke/TIA admissions and ED stroke alerts occurred during 30 December 2019 to 19 April 2020 (p trend
Document Type: article
File Description: electronic resource
Language: English
ISSN: 2059-8696
Relation: https://svn.bmj.com/content/early/2020/08/20/svn-2020-000441.full; https://doaj.org/toc/2059-8696
DOI: 10.1136/svn-2020-000441
Access URL: https://doaj.org/article/c31dee9933ec48c6831bd31e453189d4
Accession Number: edsdoj.31dee9933ec48c6831bd31e453189d4
Database: Directory of Open Access Journals
More Details
ISSN:20598696
DOI:10.1136/svn-2020-000441
Published in:Stroke and Vascular Neurology
Language:English