Divergent Causes of Death After Ischemic and Hemorrhagic Stroke in the Reperfusion Era: A Contemporary Cohort Study
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Background
Contemporary data on long-term, cause-specific mortality among stroke survivors are sparse, and much of the existing evidence derives from studies performed before the modern reperfusion era. We sought to characterize long-term cause-specific mortality among stroke survivors to discharge (differentiated by stroke subtype) when compared to in-hospital stroke decedents treated under contemporary standards of care.
Methods
Using a hybrid billing-code/imaging and large language model-assisted chart-review pipeline, we identified adults hospitalized for ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke in the Observational Study of Cardiac Arrest Risk (OSCAR) cohort (Cedars-Sinai Health System, Los Angeles) between 2017 and 2020, followed through June 30, 2025. Cause of death was determined and classified into 10 categories.
Results
Among 1,344 stroke patients (mean age 74.0 ± 14.9 years; ischemic n=1,036 [77.1%], hemorrhagic n=308 [22.9%]), 203 (15.1%) did not survive the index stroke. Of the 1,141 discharged survivors, 625 (54.8%) died over a median follow-up of 5.2 years. Cerebrovascular causes predominated during index stroke hospitalization (36.0%) but accounted for only 15.5% of post-stroke discharge deaths. Among ischemic stroke survivors, cardiac disease was the leading cause of death (31.6%), with sudden cardiac arrest alone accounting for 10.9% of deaths. Among hemorrhagic stroke survivors, cancer (38.9%) was the leading cause of death. Despite these divergent cause-of-death profiles, overall survival did not differ significantly by subtype (median 5.5 vs 5.8 years; P =0.90).
Conclusions
In this contemporary, reperfusion-era cohort, causes of death shifted from cerebrovascular predominance in the acute phase to heart disease/cardiac arrest after ischemic stroke, and malignancy after hemorrhagic stroke. These findings argue for development of subtype-specific post-stroke surveillance, including structured longitudinal cardiac and sudden-death risk assessment for ischemic stroke survivors.
