Research Letter Stroke in the very old: clinical

presentations and outcomes SIR—The number of people aged 80 and above is growing faster than any other age group. In 2006, people aged 80 and over were approximately 19 % of the population in developed countries and around 10 % in developing countries. In 2050, these figures are projected to be 29 and 18 % in developed and developing countries respectively [1]. The octogenarian population has an average annual growth rate twice as high as the growth rate of the population group of over 60 years of age. Stroke will unavoidably be a major problem of this age as one-third of incidence is in this group [2]. In the UK, about 130,000 people suffer a stroke each year, almost 80 % of the cases occur over the age of 65, and nearly half the strokes occur over the age of 75 [3]. Although the Oxford Vascular Study showed a decrease in the incidence of first-ever stroke by 40 % over 20 years from 1981–84 to 2002–04, which means the drop of stroke incidence to approximately 88,000 patients per year, the overall incidence in patients aged ≥85 did not significantly change compared to the change of incidence in the younger patients [4, 5]. Moreover, the incidence rate in patients aged ≥85 was 12 times higher than the younger (16.36 versus 1.33 per 1,000 per year). Stroke in the very old (age ≥80 years) might be different from younger patients. The aim of this study was to investigate and compare demographics, risk factors, clinical presentations and clinical outcomes in two groups of patients with stroke, those aged 80 and over and those younger than 80 years. Method Data were collected prospectively from all patients with a confirmed diagnosis of acute stroke admitted to the Acut