NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Patients with ischemic stroke are less likely to die over the subsequent week if they are admitted to hospital on a weekday rather than during a weekend, neurologists in Canada report.

This so-called "weekend effect" has been documented for other serious conditions, such as aortic aneurysm and pulmonary embolism, Dr. Gustavo Saposnik, from the University of Toronto, and his associates note in the early online edition of Stroke for April. However, whether the phenomenon applies to patients with ischemic stroke has not been fully explored.

Using the Canadian Institute for Health Information's national database, the investigators identified all patients with ischemic stroke admitted to acute care hospitals between April 2003 and March 2004. Included were 26,676 patients admitted to 606 centers across Canada.

The 7-day case-fatality rate was 7.4% among the 20,047 admissions on weekdays, and 8.5% for the 6629 admissions on weekends. After adjusting for age, gender, comorbidities, and medical complications, the mortality odds ratio was 1.17 for patients admitted on weekends.

The discrepancy was larger in rural hospitals than in urban hospitals, and when the responsible physician was a general practitioner rather than a specialist. Admission to a non-teaching hospital was also associated with increased risk, as was admission to an intensive care unit.

"Even in a country with universal health insurance coverage, disparities in resources, expertise, or the number of healthcare providers working during weekends" may affect the stroke mortality rate, Dr. Saposnik and his associates conclude.