Stroke in critically ill patients with respiratory failure due to COVID-19

Disparities between low-middle and high-income countries

Battaglini D, Kelly TL, Griffee M, Fanning J, Premraj L, Whitman G, Porto DB, Arora R, Thomson D, Pelosi P, White NM, Bassi GL, Suen J, Fraser JF, Robba C, Cho SM; COVID-19 Critical Care Consortium Investigators Heart Lung DOI 10.1016/j.hrtlng.2024.06.015

Purpose: We aimed to compare the incidence of stroke in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) versus high-income countries (HICs) in critically ill patients with COVID-19 and its impact on in-hospital mortality.

Methods: International observational study conducted in 43 countries. Stroke and mortality incidence rates and rate ratios (IRR) were calculated per admitted days using Poisson regression. Inverse probability weighting (IPW) was used to address the HICs vs. LMICs imbalance for confounders.