To address the overall impact of stroke representation on the clinical cases of COVID-19, researchers from the World Health Organization designed methods to discover the acute ischemic stroke outcomes, treatment, and symptoms (Duman, 2021). The subjects who conducted the experiment were people from the World Health Organization along with the American Stroke Organization, who categorized different time periods while observing the “retrospective review of patients with a discharge diagnosis of acute ischemic stroke from the Get With The Guidelines database that was performed from January 1, 2019, to July 1, 2020” during the global pandemic (Duman, 2021). The control group was the “Pre-COVID” (January/February) time period that had no significant change on the impact of acute ischemic stroke (Duman, 2021). The independent variable was the different time periods of COVID-19 and the dependent variable was how the virus impacted stroke interventions by observation and trial and error (Duman, 2021). As the researchers continued to experiment with the range of COVID-19 cases in different time periods during the pandemic, they realized that a consistent number of samples needed to be collected to observe more precise results with a specific pattern of results (Duman, 2021).
With the first cases in New York City and brief statistical analyses, different percentages resulted in showing how the stroke volumes were lower in the Peak-COVID period in 2020 than in 2019 (Duman, 2021). Hospital mortality rates were also recorded during the 24 hours of the 2020 Peak-COVID period as patients were more likely to present symptoms of acute ischemic stroke (Duman, 2021). However, there was no significant change in the treatment with tPA activators or mechanical thrombectomy during the Peak-COVID period (Duman, 2021). “Interestingly, relative treatment rates increased during the 2020 Post-COVID period to 11.4%,” showing a sudden change in the results (Duman, 2021). The advantages were that we were able to conclude how “the overall ischemic stroke volume decreased during the pandemic, and patients had a tendency to present later, beyond eligible treatment windows,” showing the success part of the experiment (Duman, 2021). However, between the “rates of treatment, patient demographics, and stroke outcomes while comparing them to prior and present COVID-19 years,” further research is still required to explain a bigger scope of significant changes (Duman, 2021).
After studying the COVID-19 cases in New York in the United States of America, the researchers from the World Health Organization organized a discussion with other foreign nations, where the highest number of disease cases was happening (Duman, 2021). Supported by the National Institutes of Health and the Departments of Neurology and Radiology, this stroke research helped to compare the pandemic results of COVID-19 cases and how their impact on society affected the ischemic stroke rates (Duman, 2021). Studies conducted by researchers from Barcelona, Spain, and Hong Kong, and China reported “a decrease in the number of stroke codes and that patients were presenting to the hospital later after the onset of their symptoms” (Duman, 2021). France was also conducted later with a “cross-sectional study that demonstrated a 21% decrease in mechanical thrombectomy volume during COVID-19” (Duman, 2021). However, there were overall time delays regarding treatment as there was a large population of patients compared to the “limited sample size from narrow geography of only two thrombectomy-capable stroke centers in the New York metropolitan area, which limits the generalizability of these findings” (Duman, 2021). The limited sample may have more concise results with the Pre-Covid-19 period but may have had more outliers when displaying many thrombectomy treatments and the effects on ischemic stroke cures (Duman, 2021). Eventually, the analyses revealed that in-hospital mortality rates showed a consistent curve in the time periods (Duman, 2021). Therefore, “numerous groups have advocated for increasing public awareness regarding the association of COVID-19 to delayed stroke treatment and clinical outcomes,” enhancing a greater timely diagnosis in order to detect treatment outcomes for acute ischemic stroke (Duman, 2021).
APA Format Citation:
Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Acute Ischemic Stroke Presentation,
Treatment, and Outcomes (2021). Hindawi.
https://www.hindawi.com/journals/srt/2021/8653396/
