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Background and Purpose— The study aimed to assess whether onset headache is an ominous sign in patients with first-ever ischemic stroke. Methods— A large population of ischemic stroke patients was obtained from the Taiwan Stroke Registry. Stroke subtypes were classified by the Trial of ORG 10172 in Acute Stroke Treatment (TOAST) criteria. On the basis of the International Classification of Headache Disorders, second version, onset headache was defined as a new headache that developed at the onset of ischemic stroke. Clinical features and impact on stroke outcomes, including in-hospital stroke in evolution, changes in National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale on discharge, and Barthel index and modified Rankin scale ≤6 months after stroke were compared between those with and without onset headache. Results— Among 11 523 patients with first-ever ischemic stroke, 848 had onset headache (7.4%). Patients with specific cause, large-artery atherosclerosis, or cardioembolism were more likely to have onset headache. Patients with onset headache were younger, predominantly female, and more likely to have posterior circulation ischemic lesions. Compared with patients without onset headache, those with onset headache had a lower frequency of stroke in evolution (4.5% versus 6.7%; adjusted relative risk, 0.64; 95% confidence interval, 0.52–0.79), greater improvement in National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score on discharge (0.08 versus −0.20; P =0.02), higher mean Barthel index scores (86.5±20.0 versus 83.9±23.3; adjusted difference, 1.43; 95% confidence interval, 0.28–2.89), and a lower frequency of modified Rankin scale higher than 2 (27.6% versus 31.5%; adjusted relative risk, 0.85; 95% confidence interval, 0.72–0.95) at 1-month follow-up. There was also a trend for better functional outcome in 3- and 6-month follow-ups. Conclusions— By adopting standard classification criteria, this large-scale study demonstrated that onset headache was associated with modest but significantly better outcomes after ischemic stroke.

Background and Purpose— Various risk score models have been developed to predict symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage (SICH) after intravenous thrombolysis for acute ischemic stroke. In this study, we aimed to determine the prediction performance of these risk scores in a Taiwanese population Methods— Prospectively collected data from 4 hospitals were used to calculate probability of SICH with the scores developed by Cucchiara et al, the Hemorrhage After Thrombolysis (HAT) score, the Safe Implementation of Thrombolysis in Stroke-SICH risk score, the Glucose Race Age Sex Pressure Stroke Severity score, and the Stroke Prognostication using Age and National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale-100 index. We used logistic regression to evaluate the effectiveness of each risk model in predicting SICH and the c statistic to assess performance. Results— A total of 548 patients were included. The rates of SICH were 7.3% by the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke definition, 5.3% by the European-Australasian Cooperative Acute Stroke Study II definition, and 3.5% by the Safe Implementation of Thrombolysis in Stroke-Monitoring Study definition. The Cucchiara score, the HAT score, and the Safe Implementation of Thrombolysis in Stroke-SICH risk score were significant predictors of SICH for all 3 definitions, whereas the Glucose Race Age Sex Pressure Stroke Severity score and the Stroke Prognostication using Age and National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale-100 index predicted well only for 1 or 2 definitions of SICH. The c statistic was highest for the HAT score (range, 0.69–0.73) across the definitions of SICH. Conclusions— The Cucchiara score, the HAT score, and the Safe Implementation of Thrombolysis in Stroke-SICH risk score predicted SICH reasonably well regardless of which SICH definition was used. However, only the HAT score had an acceptable discriminatory ability.

Introduction: Whether weekend admission is associated with increased stroke mortality in Taiwan remains uncertain, partly because of an inadequate case-mix adjustment in other studies using an insurance claims databases. Hypothesis: Adding the 7-item claims-based stroke severity index (SSI) to a multivariate logistic regression model might alter the analysis of the effect of weekend admission on 30-day stroke mortality. Methods: We identified, in the Taiwan Longitudinal Health Insurance Database, which is linked with the National Death Registry, patients hospitalized for acute ischemic stroke between 2001 and 2013. The primary outcome was mortality 30 days post-admission. In base logistic regression models with and without the SSI, we tested the odds ratio (OR) of 30-day mortality in patient admitted on weekends using the covariates of age, sex, year of admission, Charlson’s comorbidity index, brain surgery, physician specialty and surgical volume, hospital ownership, accreditation, and patient volume. Results: We analyzed 46,007 consecutive hospitalized stroke patients (mean age: 68.8 ± 12.0 years; male: 59%), with an SSI of 7.5 ± 5.3 (range: 4.1-27.1), 23.0% were admitted on the weekend, and 4.2% died within 30 days. Patients who died within 30 days were more likely to have been admitted on a weekend (4.9% vs. 4.0%, p < 0.001). Nevertheless, patients admitted on a weekend had a higher SSI than those admitted on a weekday (7.8 vs. 7.4, p < 0.001). In multivariate logistic regression models, weekend admission was associated with 30-day mortality (OR: 1.22, 95% CI: 1.10-1.35) in the base model but not in the base model plus SSI (OR: 1.07, 95% CI: 0.95-1.20). Conclusions: We confirmed that, after stroke severity had been adjust by adding the SSI, weekend admission did not increase the 30-day mortality of stroke patients in Taiwan. A case-mix adjustment in comparative outcome studies of stroke patients is important when using an insurance claims database.

Introduction: Stroke severity, an important outcome predictor after intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), is usually unavailable in administrative databases. Hypothesis: A claims-based stroke severity index (SSI) with seven predictors is valid for patients with ICH. Methods: Consecutive 1,360 ICH patients of three stroke centers with stroke registry data linked to the National Health Insurance Research Database constituted the study cohort. The admission National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) and the 3-, 6-, and 12-month modified Rankin Scale (mRS) were the reference standards of concurrent and predictive validity, respectively, and were compared with SSI using Pearson’s correlation coefficient. We fitted base logistic regression models (age, sex, and Charlson’s Comorbidity index) to predict mortality at 3, 6, 12 months, added the NIHSS or the SSI separately to the base models, and compared the model discrimination with the base model. Results: The SSI correlated with the admission NIHSS (r = 0.731, 95% CI: 0.705-0.755) and mRS at 3, 6, and 12 months (r = 0.696, 95% CI: 0.665-0.724; r = 0.685, 95% CI: 0.653-0.715; and r = 0.664, 95% CI: 0.622-0.702, respectively). Adding the SSI or the NIHSS to the base models increased model discrimination. The areas under the curve (AUCs) of the base models for 3-, 6-, and 12-month mortality were 0.694, 0.689, 0.706; they improved after adding either NIHSS (AUCs: 0.905, 0.893, and 0.884) or SSI (AUCs: 0.843, 0.831, and 0.840) to the base model. Conclusions: The SSI might be a valid NIHSS proxy and enable adjustment for severity in ICH outcome studies using an administrative claims database.

Previous studies have yielded inconsistent results on whether weekend admission is associated with increased mortality after stroke, partly because of differences in case mix. Claims-based studies generally lack sufficient information on disease severity and, thus, suffer from inadequate cas