Increased risk of stroke after adhesive capsulitis: A population-based study

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE-: No previous study has described the association between stroke and previous adhesive capsulitis (AC). This study aims to investigate the risk of stroke after AC with a population-based database. METHOD-: Records for 10 935 with a principal diagnosis of AC and 32 805 randomly selected controls were collected between 2000 and 2003. The log-rank test was performed to analyze the differences in accumulated stroke-free survival rates between the 2 groups. Cox proportional hazard regressions were performed to calculate the longitudinal hazard of stroke. RESULTS-: During the follow-up period, 575 patients from the study group (5.3%) and 1201 from the comparison group (3.7%) had strokes. The crude hazard ratio for stroke for patients with AC was 1.46-times greater than for controls (95% CI, 1.32-1.62; P<0.001), and the adjusted hazard ratio was 1.22 (95% CI, 1.06-1.40; P=0.002). CONCLUSIONS-: Our study demonstrates increased prevalence and risk of stroke after AC. Further study is needed to confirm our findings and explore underlying mechanisms.