Clinical Epidemiology (Nov 2020)
Stroke in Heart Failure
Abstract
Hani Essa, 1 Rajiv Sankaranarayanan, 1, 2 Gregory YH Lip 1, 3 1Liverpool Centre for Cardiovascular Science, University of Liverpool, Liverpool Heart & Chest Hospital, Liverpool, UK; 2Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Liverpool, UK; 3Aalborg Thrombosis Research Unit, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aalborg University, Aalborg, DenmarkCorrespondence: Gregory YH Lip Email [email protected], the father of medicine, first recognised stroke 2400 years ago after noting that occlusion of the carotid arteries caused loss of consciousness.1 In the twenty-first century, stroke is ranked as the second leading cause of death with an estimated mortality of around 5.5 million in 2016.2 Additionally, over 50% of stroke survivors suffer chronic disability.3 Heart failure (HF) is a global cause of morbidity and mortality with an estimated 40 million cases in 2015.4 Long-term multi-system complications of HF (Figure 1) and multimorbid disease interactions are of increasing importance and demand a multidisciplinary approach. The prevalence of both stroke and HF is expected to increase due to an ageing population.5,6 It has thus far proven difficult to elucidate the strength of the association between HF and stroke.
