The Harvard Cooperative Stroke Registry

TLDR

The study’s findings largely align with prior postmortem stroke registries. A prospective, computer‑based registry captured data from 694 hospitalized stroke patients. In 694 stroke patients, 53% had thrombosis (34% large‑artery, 19% lacunar), 31% cerebral embolism, 10% intracerebral hematoma, and 6% subarachnoid hemorrhage; key observations included frequent lacunes, emboli without cardiac origin in 37%, nonsudden emboli onset in 21%, vomiting in 51% of hematomas, and headache absence in 67%.

Abstract

Data from 694 patients hospitalized with stroke were entered in a prospective, computer-based registry. Three hundred and sixty-four patients (53 percent) were diagnosed as having thrombosis, 215 (31 percent) as having cerebral embolism, 70 (10 percent) as having intracerebral hematoma, and 45 (6 percent) as having subarachnoid hemorrhage from aneurysm or arteriovenous malformations. The 364 patients diagnosed as having thrombosis were divided into 233 (34 percent of all 694 patients) whose thrombosis was thought to involve a large artery and 131 (19 percent) with lacunar infarction. Many of the findings in this study were comparable to those in previous registries based on postmortem data. New observations include the high incidence of lacunes and cerebral emboli, the absence of an identifiable cardiac origin in 37 percent of all emboli, a nonsudden onset in 21 percent of emboli, and the occurrence of vomiting at onset in 51 percent and the absence of headache at onset in 67 percent of hematomas.