Spectrum of electrocardiographic and echocardiographic changes in acute stroke - Our experience

Background: Vascular diseases remains the chief cause of death and disability in industrialised countries. Clinical and experimental data suggest that some kind of neurologically mediated myocardial injury exists especially in subarachnoid hemorrhage but not as a manifestation of joint ischemic heart disease. Objectives: To study the spectrum of changes in ECG and echocardiographic patterns in the cases of cerebrovascular disease and to assess these different changes have got any prognostic significance. Materials and methods: 100 patients with acute stroke were considered, and ECG and the 2D echo of these patients were done within 24 hours of admission. In-hospital follow-up was done to know the prognosis of all the patients. Results: ST segment depression (53.1%) and U-waves (56.2%) followed by QTc prolongation (0.5±0.7 ms) were the most common abnormalities in haemorrhage group. Whereas in infarct type of stroke U-wave was the most common ECG finding (50.0%) among infarct group followed by QTc (0.45±0.08 ms) and T-wave inversion (29.4%). None of the ECG changes had much significance on mortality and was statistically insignificant (p>0.05) with either ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke. LV dysfunction, the most common abnormality was (29.4%) in infarct and haemorrhage (46.9%) stroke. LV dysfunction did not show significant impact on mortality in either of stroke subtypes (p>0.05). Conclusion: In our experience, both ECG and ECHO abnormalities in stroke patients do not have any prognostic significance predicting mortality in CVA.