Anthropometric Measurements In Stroke Patients With Low Chads2 Score: Is It Really Significant?

Anthropometric Measurements in Stroke Patients with Low Chads2 Score: Is It Really Significant?

Abdalla Hassan, MD^*; Lloyd Klein, MD; Ibett Colina, MD and Shafaq Mahmoud, MD, Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, Chicago, IL

Meeting: Hospital Medicine 2016, March 6-9, San Diego, Calif.

Abstract Number: 74

Category: Research

Sub-Category: Other

Keywords: Chads2 Score, Height and Stroke

Background:

The CHADS2 score is widely used risk stratification model for stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). The impact of height and other anthropometric measurements on the risk of stroke in patients with low CHADS2 score is yet to be identified. We aimed to evaluate the association between height and stroke in AF patients with low CHADS2 score.

Methods:

We queried the institutional stroke data base to identify all patients with AF who presented with an acute stroke. We analyzed 86 patients at an urban teaching hospital during 2011-2014. Patients were divided into 2 groups based on CHADS2 score, low risk (score <2) and high risk (score≥2). The difference between both groups was analyzed using T-test and Chi-Square test.

Results:

Women constituted 53.5%, with mean age 77.3±11.2 years; 53.5% met criteria for low CHADS2 score, and 46.5% met criteria for the high score. Mean height for low risk and high risk groups was 167.2 ±10.1 cm and 151.8 ±14.4 cm, respectively (p=0.03). The mean body mass index (BMI) for both groups was >25 with mean BMI for high risk group was 27.3 ±5.3 and the low risk group was 28.4 ±7.6 (p=0.4). No significant difference was found in body surface area (BSA) between both groups, with low risk group (1.89 ±0.3) and high risk group (1.84 ±0.3) (p=0.4).

Conclusions:

In contrast to the available literature, we found that patients with low risk CHADS2 score with subsequent acute stroke were taller with statistical significance than those with high CHADS2 score. The implication of this finding is that such variations in anthropometric measurements might predispose patients with atrial fibrillation to higher risk of stroke regardless of their CHADS2 score. Accordingly, stroke risk stratification models should include these measurements in contemporary practice.