Epidemiological Features of Ischemic Brain Stroke; a Cross-Sectional Hospital-Based Study

Background: Assessing the prevalence of brain stroke and its clinical patterns across countries and nations could be valuable. It is an important concern for Iran as one of the countries with a high rate of stroke. Objectives: The present study was aimed to assess the epidemiological aspects of ischemic brain stroke. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Loghman-e-Hakim Hospital, Tehran, Iran from January 2013 to December 2016. The data were gathered by retrospectively reviewing the hospital records. Results: In this study, 2041 cases were admitted that 1145 (56%) cases were male. The mean age of the patients was 66.50 ± 13.49 years. The most common underlying risk factor was hypertension in 73.7% followed by diabetes mellitus in 44.3%. Left carotid stenosis was reported in 17.2% of the cases and right carotid stenosis in 9.5%. Left ventricular ejection fraction < 40% was found in 8.6% of the cases. The most common areas involved in the brain CT scanning were periventricular areas in 20.5%, left middle cerebral artery in 15.4%, and lacunar infarction 8.8% of the cases. In addition, 214 patients died indicating a crude mortality rate of 10.5%. Conclusions: The prevalence of ischemic brain stroke in males is slightly higher than females and the mean age of the patients was estimated to be 66 years. The most common risk factors are comprised of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and smoking. Carotid stenosis is evident in more than 25% of the patients, and the mortality rate was 10% in the studied population.