INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE: There are not sufficient studies analyzing the health costs of ictus in Spain. We carried out a prospective study to evaluate the health costs incurred by a @entity1 with a @entity64 during the first postictal year. @entity1 AND METHODS: We included 118 @entity1 from the @entity64 Unit of the Hospital Universitario San Carlos in Madrid, admitted between 1 July and 31 December 1996. We studied 90 survivors, of an average age of 68 years, one year after having an @entity64 and specifically calculated the cost of an average period in hospital, neuroimaging tests, rehabilitation treatment, medical follow-up in the Outpatient Clinic, transport costs and the cost of medicines. RESULTS: The average cost @entity1 /year was: hospital admission (418,203 ptas.), health transport (108,209 ptas.), cost of medicines (74,647 ptas.), follow-up visits (64,496 ptas.), neuroimaging (61,203 ptas.), rehabilitation (58,643 ptas.). The total cost was 79,930,719 ptas. and the average cost @entity1 /year 888,119 ptas. during the first year following the ictus. The use of health resources depended on the variables: handicap (increased in @entity1 with a score < 60 on the Barthel scale), average neurological deficit on the Scandinavian neurological scale and sex (cost greater in @entity1 ). The clinical follow-up of total @entity1188 of the territory of the anterior circulation cost twice as much as follow-up in cases of @entity1188 . CONCLUSIONS: @entity66 is expensive in terms of health-care. Fifty four percent of the health-care expenses are incurred during the acute phase of the ictus and the other 46% during the first year of follow-up.

[Direct cost of XXXX during the first year of follow-up].

@entity1 :: ('9606', 'Species') :: ['women', 'patients', 'patient', 'PATIENTS', 'person'] @entity64 :: ('MESH:D020521', 'Disease') :: ['stroke', 'Stroke'] @entity66 :: ('MESH:D004194', 'Disease') :: ['Cerebrovascular disease'] @entity1188 :: ('MESH:D007238', 'Disease') :: ['lacunar infarcts', 'infarcts']
@entity66 :: (MESH:D004194,Disease) :: ['cerebrovascular disease']
