Clinical characteristics in diabetic stroke patients.

The impact of diabetes was prospectively studied during a 5-year period in 428 unselected and consecutive patients with acute cerebrovascular disease of whom 18% were diabetic. Cerebral infarction was more frequent in diabetics (81 vs 70%, p less than 0.02) whereas transient cerebral ischaemia was less frequent (4 vs 14%, p less than 0.01). Case fatality rate during hospitalization was higher in the diabetic than in the non-diabetic patients (28 vs 15%, p less than 0.02). Patients who died during hospitalization, diabetic as well as non-diabetic, had significantly higher blood glucose concentrations on admission compared with patients who survived. Hematocrit values were higher in the diabetic than in the non-diabetic patients (p less than 0.02). Diabetics had higher systolic blood pressure levels than the non-diabetics in the acute phase (p less than 0.005). The diabetic stroke patients more often had a history of hypertension, atrial fibrillation, heart failure and angina pectoris than non-diabetics stroke patients and diabetic control patients without stroke. Stroke patients, not known to be diabetic, had larger mean oral glucose tolerance test curve areas when compared with healthy controls but not when compared with hospitalized controls. We propose that diabetes increases the risk for stroke through other concurrent risk factors, cardiac disorders in particular.