Less favorable neurological recovery after acute stroke in patients with hypercholesterolemia.

Objectives: We aimed to investigate the effect of hypercholesterolemia on recovery after acute ischemic stroke.

Methods: Data of 3048 patients admitted for acute ischemic stroke from January to December 2009 were collected from the Stroke Registry in the Chang Gung Healthcare System. Baseline characteristics of patients with and without hypercholesterolemia were compared. The association of hypercholesterolemia with neurological severity and recovery was analyzed using multivariate logistic regression. The patients were then divided on the basis of age for subgroup analysis.

Results: The number of patients with and without a history of hypercholesterolemia was 474 (15.6%) and 2574 (84.4%), respectively. Univariate analysis showed that patients with hypercholesterolemia had a lower National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score on admission (p=0.004). However, during hospitalization, these patients displayed less improvement in their NIHSS score (p=0.002). These results remained significant in multivariate logistic regression analysis (p<0.001 and p=0.002, respectively). Subgroup analysis showed a similar association for hypercholesterolemia in both younger (age<70) and older (age≥70) age groups.

Conclusions: Acute ischemic stroke in patients with hypercholesterolemia was correlated with reduced severity on admission and less favorable recovery during hospitalization, regardless of age.