Comparability of different data sources on stroke care in Germany

This article reviews different methodological approaches for determining treatment reality of ischemic stroke patients in acute care hospitals. Considering specific advantages and disadvantages of two different epidemiologic approaches, a specific comparison was carried out of cases from a structured analysis of the nationwide German diagnosis-related groups (DRG) statistics and data from the acute stroke treatment in Hesse (SA_HE) for 2018 collated by the office for quality management. According to the DRG statistics and the SA_HE data, 16,267 and 15,643 acute ischemic stroke patients (ICD code I63) were treated in Hesse in 2018, with 53.7% and 54.5% males, respectively. The overall age distribution did not show significant differences between the two data sources; however, stroke patients over the age of 70 years were registered significantly more often in the DRG statistics. The rates of systemic thrombolysis were 16.5% in both data sources and the rates of mechanical thrombectomy were 5.6% and 5.9%, respectively. The analysis shows that after a rational limitation of the included cases and based on the place of treatment, there were no statistically significant differences concerning the number of hospitalized patients with ischemic stroke, distribution of gender and age as well as the documented rates of systemic thrombolysis and mechanical thrombectomy. It can therefore be concluded that the well-controlled stroke quality register examined is able to capture a sufficient number of hospitalized acute ischemic stroke cases and treatment rates. Therefore, it appears to be recommendable to adopt the strict Hessian guidelines for data acquisition and control nationwide. In this way a nationwide combined analysis of data from the working group of German stroke registers and the DRG statistics would be possible.