Prevalence and epidemiology of stroke in patients with multiple sclerosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Epidemiological data are sparse regarding the risk of stroke in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). To estimate the following: (1) the pooled prevalence of all-cause stroke, acute ischaemic stroke (AIS) and intracerebral haemorrhage (ICH) in MS patients; (2) the relative risk for all-cause stroke, AIS and ICH in MS patients compared to the general population; (3) associations between patient characteristics and the risk for AIS and ICH in MS patients. Systematic review and meta-analysis of registry-based and cohort studies. Thirteen observational studies comprising 146,381 MS patients were included. The pooled prevalence of all-cause stroke was 2.7