Ischemic Stroke of Cardio-Embolic Origin: Study of 42 Cases

Introduction: Cardiac embolism is a major cause of ischemic strokes, which are the more common cause of disabilities acquired in adulthood, and the third leading cause of death after coronary heart disease and cancer.This is a real medical emergency. Objective: The main purpose of our study is to highlight the frequency of cardio-embolic causes in the genesis of Ischemic stroke at the University Hospital of Marrakech and therefore to support the semiological, paraclinical (biological and radiological) clinical properties, therapies and prognoses of ischemic strokes of cardio-embolic origin. Methods: We have performed a mono-centric crosssectional study of patients with ischemic stroke, hospitalized during the period from 1 April 2019 to 31 August 2022 at the department of Cardiology in the University Hospital of Marrakech. Results: The prevalence of stroke was13.95% of the all strokes supported during this period. The average age of our patients was 62 years, with 41-and 90-year-old extremes. The most representative age group was higher at age 60 or 76.20% of patients. A female predominance was noted in our series53% (22 patients), with a sex ratio of 1.12. Cardiovascular risk factors were dominated by High blood pressure in 31 patients (73.81%), followed by dyslipidemia in 19 cases (45.23%). The circumstances of discovery were dominated by palpitations in 23.8% of patients, followed by dyspnea in 21.42% of patients. The neurological symptomatology at admission was dominated by consciousness disorders in 24 cases (57.14%) including 13 comatose patients (30.95%) followed by motor deficit symptoms. In the cerebral scanner, a lesion type of infarction wasnoted in 82.17% of cases, spontaneous hemorrhagic reshaping was found in 2 patients (4.76%) and in 15.8% of cases, the scanner was normal.the predominant location was cortical in 41.58% of patients.Conclusion: Cardiovascular strokes are a public health problem by the prevalence in our hospital structure, severe by disability and mortality rate; hence the value of early diagnosis and treatment will improve the functional and vital prognosis.