Background: Patients with diabetes are known to have worse outcomes after an acute ischemic stroke (AIS) relative to those without diabetes. However, the impact of diabetes on the outcomes after the reperfusion therapy is poorly understood.
Objectives: This study investigated prognostic accuracy of diabetes and its association with clinical and safety outcomes in AIS patients receiving intravenous thrombolysis (IVT), endovascular thrombectomy (EVT), or both.
Material and methods: Studies were identified from PubMed, Embase and Cochrane databases, using the following inclusion criteria: (a) AIS patients receiving reperfusion therapy, (b) age ≥ 18 years, (c) hemispheric stroke, and (d) the availability of comparative data between diabetic and nondiabetic groups and relevant poststroke outcomes. Random effects modelling was used to study the association of diabetes with functional outcome at discharge and at 90 days, mortality at 90 days, recanalization status, and postreperfusion safety outcomes, including rates of symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage (sICH) and hemorrhagic transformation (HT). Forest plots of odds ratios (ORs) were generated.
Results: Of a total cohort of 82,764 patients who received reperfusion therapy, 16,877 had diabetes. Diabetes significantly increased the odds of poor functional outcome at discharge (OR 1.310; 95% confidence interval (95% CI): [1.091; 1.574]; p = 0.0037) and at 90 days (OR 1.487; 95% CI: [1.335; 1.656]; p < 0.00010), mortality at 90 days (OR 1.709; 95% CI: [1.633; 1.788]; p < 0.0001), sICH (OR 1.595; 95% CI: [1.301; 1.956]; p < 0.0001), and HT (OR 1.276; 95% CI: [1.055; 1.543]; p = 0.0118).
Conclusion: Our meta-analysis demonstrates that diabetes is significantly associated with poor functional outcome, increased mortality and poor postprocedural safety outcomes, including sICH and HT.
Keywords: cerebrovascular disease; diabetes; meta-analysis; reperfusion therapy; stroke.