Cerebral infarction and in-hospital mortality for patients admitted to hospital with intracardiac thrombus: insights from the National Inpatient Sample

The factors associated with cerebral infarction and mortality in patients hospitalized with intracardiac thrombus are unknown. A retrospective cohort study was undertaken of nationally representative hospital admissions in the National Inpatient Sample with a diagnosis of intracardiac thrombus between 2016 to 2019. Multiple logistic regressions were used to define factors associated with cerebral infarction and in-hospital mortality. There were a total of 175,370 admissions for patients with intracardiac thrombus and 10.1% patients had cerebral infarction (n = 17,675). Intracardiac thrombus represented 4.4% of primary diagnosis for admissions while circulatory conditions (65.4%), infection (5.9%), gastrointestinal conditions (4.4%), respiratory conditions (4.4%) and cancer (2.2%) were the other prevalent primary diagnoses. All-cause mortality was higher for patients with cerebral infarction (8.5% vs 4.8%). The five factors most associated with cerebral infarction were nephrotic syndrome (OR 2.67 95%CI 1.05–6.78), other thrombophilia (OR 2.12 95%CI 1.52–2.95), primary thrombophilia (OR 1.99 95%CI 1.52–2.53), previous stroke (OR 1.61 95%CI 1.47–1.75) and hypertension (OR 1.41 95%CI 1.27–1.56). The strongest independent predictors of death were heparin induced thrombocytopenia (OR 2.45 95%CI 150–4.00), acute venous thromboembolism (OR 2.03 95%CI 1.78–2.33, p < 0.001) acute myocardial infarction (OR 1.95 95%CI 1.72–2.22), arterial thrombosis (OR 1.75 95%CI 1.39–2.20) and cancer (OR 1.57 95%CI 1.36–1.81). Patients with intracardiac thrombus are at risk of cerebral infarction and in-hospital mortality. Nephrotic syndrome, thrombophilia, previous stroke, hypertension, and heparin induced thrombocytopenia were associated with cerebral infarction, while acute venous thromboembolism, acute myocardial infarction, and cancer were predictors of mortality.