Risk factors in patients with ischemic stroke - A prospective study

Background: Stroke is a leading public health problem, it is second to heart disease as a worldwide cause of death and a leading cause of long term disability. The treatment for patients with ischemic stroke is still not very effective and prevention of stroke is a better option. The incidence of stroke can be reduced by adequate control of risk factors. Aim: To evaluate the risk factors in patients with ischemic stroke. To find out the prognosis of ischemic stroke with reference to risk factors. To identify the patients having modifiable risk factors so that preventive care can be taken to improve the prognosis and prevent recurrences. Materials and methods: 65 patients with ischemic stroke who met the inclusion criteria were evaluated with a comprehensive clinical history and detailed physical examination and relevant investigations. Their prognosis during the hospital stay was also determined. Results: At the end of the study it was noted that the incidence of stroke in males was 58.46%. 50.9% of stroke occurred in people aged above 60 years. The most common risk factors were smoking (46.2%), hypertension (38.46%), dyslipidemia (18.46%), alcohol consumption (15.39%), diabetes mellitus (13.09%), heart diseases (10.7%), tobacco chewing (9.23%), history of recent delivery (1.6%) and family history of stroke (1.6%). It was also noted that 72.3% of patients had multiple risk factors of which 7% had complete recovery while 22.2% of patients with single risk factor had complete recovery. Conclusion: It was found that stroke was more common in males when compared to females and increasing age (>60 years) was associated with increased incidence of stroke. Most common modifiable risk factors were smoking, hypertension, dyslipidemia, alcohol consumption and diabetes mellitus. The most common non modifiable risk factors were increasing age, male sex and family history of stroke. Prognosis depends on the number of risk factors present. It was also found that increasing age, hyperglycemia and multiple risk factors were associated with poor prognosis.