Acute stroke patients have occult malignancy more often than expected.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the frequency of having occult malignancy in patients with acute ischemic stroke and their clinical characteristics. We retrospectively enrolled 1,714 consecutive ischemic stroke patients within 7 days of onset. The patients were divided into two groups: the Non-M group had no malignancy, and the M group had malignancy. We compared the clinical characteristics of the two groups. Of 1,714 ischemic stroke patients, 51 patients (3.0%; M group) were newly diagnosed as having malignancy. The M group was significantly older than the Non-M group (p = 0.009). Hemoglobin (Hb) was less and D-dimer was higher in the M group than in the Non-M group (p < 0.001). The patients with both D-dimer >or=1.3 ng/dl and Hb <12.8 g/dl more frequently had occult malignancy than patients without (p = 0.0088). Copyright (c) 2010 S. Karger AG, Basel.