IBIMA Publishing Journal of Research in Diabetes http://www.ibimapublishing.com/journals/DIAB/diab.html Vol. 2015 (2015), Article ID 112104, 11 Pages DOI: 10.5171/2015.112104 ______________ Cite this Article as: Aliona Nacu, Lars Thomassen, Annette Fromm, Anna Therese Bjerkreim, Ulrike Waje Andreassen and Halvor Naess (2015), “Impact of Diabetes Mellitus on 1867 Acute Ischemic Stroke Patients. A Bergen NORSTROKE Study”, Journal of Research in Diabetes, Vol. 2015(2015), Article ID 112104, DOI: 10.5171/2015.112104 Research Article Impact of Diabetes Mellitus on 1867 Acute Ischemic Stroke Patients. A Bergen NORSTROKE Study Aliona Nacu 1 , Lars Thomassen 2 , Annette Fromm 3 , Anna Therese Bjerkreim 4 , Ulrike Waje Andreassen 5 and Halvor Naess 6 1,2,3,4,5,6 Department of Neurology, Haukeland University Hospital, N-5021 Bergen, Norway 1,2,3,4,5,6 Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Bergen, Post box 7804, N-5020 Bergen, Norway 6 Centre for age-related medicine, Stavanger University Hospital, Post box 8100, N-4068 Stavanger, Norway Correspondence should be addressed to: Aliona Nacu; aliona.nacu@helse-bergen.no Received date: 30 October 2013; Accepted date: 20 December 2013; published date: 9 July 2015 Academic Editor: Adrià G. Arboix Copyright © 2015. Aliona Nacu, Lars Thomassen, Annette Fromm, Anna Therese Bjerkreim, Ulrike Waje Andreassen and Halvor Naess. Distributed under Creative Commons CC-BY 3.0 Abstract Objective: Our aim was to compare the clinical characteristics including risk factors, comorbidities, short-term outcome and long-term mortality in acute ischemic stroke patients with or without diabetes mellitus. Methods: This study includes all consecutive patients with acute ischemic stroke admitted to the Stroke Unit, Department of Neurology, Haukeland University Hospital between February 2006 and January 2012. The National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) was used to assess stroke severity on admission. Short-term outcome was determined by the modified Rankin scale (mRS), NIHSS, and Barthel index on day 7 after stroke onset. First emergency readmission < 12 months after discharge was registered. Survival state was obtained by consulting the official population registry. Results: In total, 1867 patients of which 283 (15%) patients had diabetes mellitus. Relative frequency of diabetes mellitus according to age showed and inverse U-shape with highest frequency at 75-80 years for males, whereas the frequency was independent of age among females. More males than females had diabetes mellitus. Patients with diabetes mellitus more often had myocardial infarction, angina pectoris, hypertension (all P<.001), and higher total risk factor burden (P<.001). Patients with diabetes mellitus had worse short-term outcome (P<0.001) and long-term mortality was increased. Patients with diabetes mellitus had more frequent first emergency readmission within 90 days (P=0.044). Conclusions: Stroke patients with diabetes mellitus have significantly more traditional risk factors. Short-term outcome and long-term mortality were worse. Relative frequencies of diabetes mellitus and age differed between males and females. Key words: acute ischemic stroke, diabetes mellitus, risk factors, outcome