Stroke

Objective: To document seasonal variations invarious types of stroke and to identify possible precipitating/aggravating factors. Design: Analytical. Place andDuration of Study: Military Hospital Rawalpindi and Combined Military Hospital Rawalpindi, for one year, from IstOctober 2001 to 30th September 2002. Patients and Methods: 116 adult stroke patients diagnosed on the basis ofhistory, clinical examination and CT Scan and admitted during this period were included in the study. The findings weredocumented and analyzed using SPSS and frequency of stroke in relation to seasons was calculated. Chi square testwas used to determine significance of differences in frequency of different types of stroke in the winter and summer.Results: The age of the patients ranged from 20-87 years.83 were males while 33 were females. Sixty-nine out of 116cases presented in summer and the rest 47 in winter. In summer out of 69 subjects, 48(69.56%) had ischaemic strokesand 21(30.44%) had hemorrhagic strokes, of which 19 had Intra Cerebral Hemorrhage (ICH) and 2 subarachnoidhemorrhage (SAH). In winter, out of 47 subjects, 28(59.57%) had ischaemic strokes and 19(40.43%) had haemorrhagicstrokes (all ICH). Two definite seasonal peaks one in extreme summer (June, July) and the other in extreme winter(December, January) were seen. Conclusions: There is a significant variation in frequency of stroke and its differenttypes in different seasons of the year with higher occurrence in peak summer (June, July) and extreme winter(December, January).