# Pulmonary hypertension leads to poor inpatient outcome in non-white patients admitted with stroke: an analysis of national inpatient sample

## TL;DR

Pulmonary hypertension worsens hospital outcomes for non-white stroke patients, including higher death rates and longer stays.

## Contribution

This study identifies racial disparities in stroke outcomes linked to pulmonary hypertension using a large national database.

## Key findings

- Patients with pulmonary hypertension had higher inpatient mortality and longer hospital stays.
- Black patients with pulmonary hypertension had the longest length of stay compared to Caucasians.
- Racial disparities in stroke outcomes are evident in patients with pulmonary hypertension.

## Abstract

Stroke is one of the leading causes of death and disability worldwide. Every year, about 795,000 strokes are reported in the United States, of which around 23% are recurrent. We analyzed the national inpatient sample to assess the outcomes in patient with pulmonary hypertension and ischemic stroke. Our study included 7 million inpatient discharge encounters among which 553,085 patients had ischemic stroke. Among this, 16,830 had PH and 536,255 did not have PH.female (63.8% vs. 48.8%; p < 0.0001). A higher proportion of stroke patients with PH died in the hospital (5.7% vs. 3.7%; p < 0.0001) as well as had a longer average length of stay (LOS) [6.3 days (SD 6.2) vs. 5.0 days (SD 6.8); p < 0.0001]. Our study noted that black patients with PH were younger [70.5 years (SD 13.8)]. Black patients had the longest length of stay compared to Caucasians (7.8 days SD 8.3) (p < 0.0001).