A prospective cohort study of stroke characteristics, care, and mortality in a hospital stroke registry in Vietnam.

Background: As low and middle-income countries such as Vietnam experience the health transition from infectious to chronic diseases, the morbidity and mortality from stroke will rise. In line with the recommendation of the Institute of Medicine's report on "Promoting Cardiovascular Health in the Developing World" to "improve local data", we sought to investigate patient characteristics and clinical predictors of mortality among stroke inpatients at Da Nang Hospital in Vietnam.

Methods: A stroke registry was developed and implemented at Da Nang Hospital utilizing the World Health Organization's Stroke STEPS instrument for data collection.