PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Pu, Ming-Jun AU - Yu, Jia-Lun AU - Hu, Xiao AU - Deng, Lan AU - Chen, Chu AU - Lv, Xin-Ni AU - Li, Zuo-Qiao AU - Wang, Zi-Jie AU - Xie, Peng AU - Li, Qi TI - Incidence, characteristics and outcome of post-stroke recrudescence in the Chinese population: a single-centre observational study AID - 10.1136/bmjopen-2022-068878 DP - 2023 Sep 01 TA - BMJ Open PG - e068878 VI - 13 IP - 9 4099 - http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/13/9/e068878.short 4100 - http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/13/9/e068878.full SO - BMJ Open2023 Sep 01; 13 AB - Objectives The aim of our observational study was to investigate the incidence, clinical characteristics and outcome of post-stroke recrudescence (PSR) in the Chinese population.Design and setting Single-centre prospective observational study in China.Participants A total of 1114 patients who had a suspected stroke were prospectively screened from October 2020 to February 2022.Outcome measures The primary outcome was the proportion of patients with functional independence defined as a score of 0–2 on the modified Rankin Scale (mRS) at 3 months. Secondary outcomes were: early neurological improvement (ENI), defined as a National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score of 0 or an improvement of ≥2 points from admission at 24 hours; mortality within 3 months; stroke recurrence within 3 months and length of stay in hospital.Results A total of 959 patients with cerebral infarction and 30 patients without an available magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan were excluded. Among the 125 included patients, 27 cases of PSR (2.4%), 50 cases of transient ischaemic attack (TIA) (4.5%) and 48 cases of stroke mimics (SMs) (4.3%) were identified. A higher frequency of infection at admission (22.2% vs 2%, p=0.007) was observed in patients with PSR compared with patients with TIA, and a lower proportion of functional independence at 3 months (80% vs 98%, p=0.015) was seen. Patients with TIA had a higher frequency of ENI compared with patients with PSR and SMs (98% vs 59.3%, p<0.001; 98% vs 52.1%, p<0.001). Patients with PSR exhibited a higher frequency of grade 2 Fazekas deep white matter hyperintensity compared with those with SMs (33.3% vs 8.3%, p=0.010).Conclusions PSR is not uncommon in patients presenting with stroke symptoms and can be distinguished from TIA and SMs based on a combination of clinical features and trigger in the Chinese population. The neurological deficits of patients with PSR often resolve within several days following the resolution of the trigger.Data are available upon reasonable request. Data are available upon reasonable request to the corresponding author.