Demographic Characteristics of Stroke Types in Adıyaman

Abstract

Objective: We aimed to investigate the etiologic, demographic, clinical features, and risk factors of patients who were hospitalized, followed up, and treated due to stroke in our hospital.

Materials and Methods: In this study, the hospital records of patients diagnosed as having stroke or cerebrovascular disease (CVD) between January 2013 and January 2015 in Adıyaman University Training and Research Hospital, where patients with stroke are frequently admitted or transferred, were retrospectively investigated.

Results: In the past two years, 683 patients were followed-up or treated for stroke and CVD in our hospital. Stroke patients constituted 0.06% of all emergency admissions. Of these patients, 87.8% were diagnosed as having ischemic stroke and 8.6% were diagnosed as having hemorrhagic stroke. The sex distribution was almost equal (50.8% were males and 49.2% were females). Based on the results of brain scans performed during admission, radiologically, 498 (81.1%) patients showed evidence of anterior system involvement and 116 (18.9%) patients showed evidence of posterior system involvement. No focal areas were observed in computed tomography scans in 508 patients. However, diffusion magnetic resonance findings of these 508 patients were pathologic. Most of the patients with stroke were aged above 65 years (74.9%). The most common symptom during admission was unilateral muscle weakness (63.3%), and 58.6% of the patients were brought to the hospital by ambulance.

Conclusion: As well as the results of our study being parallel to previous studies, our study also reflects the majority of stroke data in Adıyaman, Turkey, and provides significant results regarding our geographic region.