Using electronic health records to identify computed tomography brain features associated with post-stroke dementia: A feasibility study

Background: We explored the feasibility of linking research datasets to electronic health records to identify acute stroke computed tomography (CT) brain features associated with post-stroke dementia. Methods: We linked data from two existing research datasets of people who had a stroke. These datasets contained expert-coded features from CT brain scans. Participants were followed up by linking to their electronic health records. Survival analyses were performed to identify prognostic factors associated with increased risk of post-stroke dementia. Results: Twenty-one participants (11%, n = 21/185) were identified as having dementia after stroke (median follow-up: 9 years and 8 months). Presence of cerebral atrophy and moderate-to-severe white matter hyperintensities on acute stroke CT scans were associated with an increased risk of post-stroke dementia. Conclusion: Linkage to electronic health records is a feasible method for studying dementia outcomes after stroke. This method can be applied to larger stroke populations to explore acute stroke imaging predictors in more detail.