Ischemic Stroke Registry in Egypt: Hospital Based Study

Background: Stroke is defined by the World Health Organization(WHO) as ‘a clinical syndrome consisting of rapidly developing clinical signs of focal (or sometimes global) disturbance of cerebral function lasting more than 24 hours or leading to death with no apparent cause other than a vascular origin. Objective: To study the pattern of ischemic stroke subtypes in a sample Egyptian patients, common risk factor profiles and management methods. Patients: A retrospective study was conducted on 321 patients who were admitted to Al-Azhar University Hospitals and Nasser Institute with a main primary diagnosis of acute ischemic stroke during the period from January 2017 until December 2018. Results: Small vessel strokes were the most common accounting for 51.1% of all patients, followed by large vessel getting affected 24% of the cases. Cardio embolic stroke was present in 20.8%of the cases, Hypertension was the most prevalent risk factor among patients accounting for 61.1%, diabetes (49.5%), obesity (38.6%), and smoking (32.1%). A significant difference in stroke severity among stroke patients regarding smoking status was found in univariate analysis and obesity. Multivariate analysis using multiple linear regressions showed that the relationship with obesity was significant. Conclusion: In spite of the high prevalence of stroke risk factors among the study patients, the power wasn’t enough to show any association with stroke severity except for smoking and obesity, where smokers and obese patients are more likely to have higher stroke severity.