Pejoratives Factors of African Young People Ischemic Stroke: Experience of Senegal

Introduction: Strokes are frequent and severe, because of the involvement of vital and functional prognosis of patients,especially in young patients living in developing countries. Objective: The main objective of the current study is to identify epidemiological, clinical, paraclinical and etiological predictors of adverse evolution in young adult ischemic stroke. Methodology: Authors conducted a retrospective study at the neurological department of University hospital Fann, Dakar, Senegal, on the records of hospitalized patients from 01 January 2010 to 31 December 2011. Patients aged from 15-55 years in whom the diagnosis of ischemic stroke was selected on the basis of clinical findings and confirmed by a brain scan were included in our study. Results: Authors gathered 116 cases. Mean patient age was 43.5 years with extremes of 19 to 55 years. The main risk factors found in the medical history of patients were hypertension (57.7%), diabetes (19%), and history of stroke(10.3%). Clinical signs were dominated by hemiplegia (95.7%) and language disorders (61.2%). The average length of stay in hospital was 16 days. A death rate of 28.4% was observed. The main predictors of adverse evolution identified were the length of stay in the hospital, age, Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS), blood glucose level. Patients with a GCS lower than 10 had a risk of death multiplied by 5. Patients with blood glucose level ? 2 had 4 times greater risk of death than others. Conclusions: Glucose acute phase and state of consciousness seem to be predictors of cerebral ischemia. A quick and appropriate management will improve the vital prognosis and better recovery.