THURSDAY, Oct. 31, 2024 (HealthDay News) — For patients with stroke and transient ischemic attack, The Get With The Guidelines-Stroke participation is associated with sustained improvement in care and outcomes, according to a study published online Oct. 21 in Stroke.

Ying Xian, M.D., Ph.D., from UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, and colleagues examined patient characteristics, adherence to performance measures, and in-hospital outcomes in patients hospitalized with stroke in The Get With The Guidelines-Stroke hospitals from 2003 to 2022. Temporal changes in performance measure adherence and clinical outcomes were quantified over time.

A total of 7,837,849 stroke cases were entered into the registry during the 20 years of the program: 69.2 percent ischemic strokes, 3.9 percent subarachnoid hemorrhages, 11.5 percent intracerebral hemorrhages, and 15.3 percent transient ischemic attacks. The researchers found significantly sustained improvements in all performance metrics except for antithrombotics at discharge (baseline performance >92 percent), regardless of type of cerebrovascular event. Independent of patient and hospital characteristics for each type of cerebrovascular event, there was a sustained increase in odds of receiving each performance measure over time in a multivariable analysis. There were temporal trends that patients were less likely to be discharged to a skilled nursing facility after risk adjustment; for ischemic stroke only, they were more likely to be discharged directly home.

“These findings provide compelling evidence to support continuous efforts in improving stroke care and outcomes in the United States and globally,” the authors write.

Several authors disclosed ties to the pharmaceutical industry; The Get With The Guidelines-Stroke program is sponsored by pharmaceutical companies.

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