Acute ischemic strokes in patients with developmental disabilities: A cross-sectional analysis

Objective Patients with developmental disabilities (DD) are frequently excluded from acute ischemic stroke (AIS) randomized control trials. We sought to evaluate the impact of having DD on this patient cohort Methods The National Inpatient Sample was analyzed to explore the impact of AIS and treatment on discharge dispositions in patients with DD. Clinical characteristics, treatments, and outcomes were compared to fully-abled patients with AIS. Results 1,605,723 patients with AIS were identified from 2010–2019, of whom 4094 (0.30%) had a DD. AIS patients with DD were younger (60.31 vs 70.93 years, p Conclusion AIS patients with DD were less likely to receive tPA and EVT compared to fully-abled patients. Individuals with DD had higher mortality and worse discharge disposition. There was no significant difference in post-EVT outcomes between fully-abled patients and patients with developmental disabilities. In the absence of prospective clinical trials, population based cross-sectional analyses such as the present study provide valuable clinical insight.