Performance of Charlson and Elixhauser Comorbidity Index to Predict in-Hospital Mortality in Patients with Stroke in Sumadija and Western Serbia

Background: Comorbidities are major predictors of in-hospital mortality in stroke patients. The Charlson comorbidity index (CCI) and the Elikhauser comorbidity index (ECI) are scoring systems for classifying comorbidities. We aimed to compare the performance of the CCI and ECI to predict in-hospital mortality in stroke patients. Methods: We included patients hospitalized for stroke in the Clinical Center of Kragujevac, Serbia for the last 7 years. Hospitalizations caused by stroke, were identified by the International Classification of Diseases-10 (ICD-10) codes I60.0 - I69.9. All patients were divided into two cohorts: Alive cohort (n=3297) and Mortality cohort (n=978). Results: There were significant associations between higher CCIS and increased risk of in-hospital mortality (HR = 1.07, 95% CI = 1.01-1.12) and between higher ECIS and increased risk of in-hospital mortality (HR = 1.04, 95% CI = 0.99-1.09). Almost 2/3 patients (66.9%) had comorbidities included in the CCI score and 1/3 patients (30.2%) had comorbidities included in the ECI score. The statistically significant higher CCI score (t = -3.88, df = 1017.96, P