Abstract

Stroke is the leading cause of mortality and long-term disabilities worldwide. In addition to clinical presentation, many scoring systems and various laboratory values have been associated with predicting prognosis. In this study, we aimed to investigate the relationship between the aortic knob width (AKW) and prognosis in people presenting to the emergency department with stroke.

Three hundred fifty-two patients, who admitted to the emergency department of our hospital with acute ischemic (206 males, 146 females, mean age, 68.3±13.3 years) stroke were included to the study. The number of patients who died in the hospital were recorded. Those who were discharged were followed up and called from the central information system and by phone, and it was recorded whether they were exitus within 3 months. AKW were obtained from the chest radiographies of the patients.

Total of 95 patients became exitus during their hospitalization and within the 3 months to follow. Two groups were created; group 1: 95 patients that became exitus (48 males, 47 females; mean age 75.5±11.8 years); group 2: 257 patients (158 males, 99 females, mean age 65.6±12.7 years). AKW was significantly higher in group 1 as compared to group 2 (44.1±6.9 vs. 39.7±7.6 mm; p<0.001). When the AKW value was correlated with scoring systems, there was a weak but significant correlation. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed, AKW was one of the independent predictors of mortality. For AKW predicting in-hospital mortality, cut-off value was 42.05 mm with 72.7% sensitivity and 65.4% specificity.

AKW, which can be easily obtained from chest radiography, can also be correlated with 3 months mortality and prognosis in stroke patients. The patients with a finding of AKW over 42.05 mm may be correlated with a poorer outcome