Literature regarding cardiac deaths in hemorrhagic stroke patients is few. The aim of this study was to investigate the incidence and risk factors of cardiac death in hemorrhagic stroke patients. We used the multiple causes of death database from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Wide-ranging Online Data of the United States. We identified death certificates from 2006 to 2010 with hemorrhagic stroke (International Classification of Disease, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) code I60-62), or ischemic stroke (ICD-10 code I63), and evaluated the frequency and risk factors of reporting MI (ICD-10 code I20-25) or arrhythmias (ICD-10 code I44-45, I47-49) as the main cause of death in these populations. Over the five-year period, 224,359 death certificates that mentioned hemorrhagic stroke were identified, and the cause of death was MI in 8.95% and arrhythmia in 7.28% patients. With autopsy confirmation, the incidences of MI and arrhythmias in the hemorrhagic stroke group were still lower than the ischemic group. The odds ratio of reporting arrhythmias as a cause of death in hospitalized population was higher. A substantial percentage of hemorrhagic stroke patients had cardiac death. Greater efforts are needed to closely monitor high-risk groups such as females and the elderly.
Keywords: arrhythmias; cardiac complications; death certificates; hemorrhagic stroke; myocardial infarction.