Study of Risk Factors in Stroke Among Young Individuals at a Tertiary Care Hospital: A Retrospective Study.

Unlabelled: Stroke is the second leading cause of death worldwide. Stroke is responsible for 3.5% of DALY in India.Recently, ICMR has reported that stroke was 4th leading cause of death and 5 Years (DALY) in 2016. Globally almost half of the entire stroke burden now affects young individuals given that they have a greater likelihood to survive their strokes with long life spans ahead.The majority of authors are using the age of 45 as the group's upper limit for stroke in young.This study is conducted to find out various risk factors and etiologies in young patients with stroke.

Material: A retrospective study consisting of 50 patients of stroke in young were taken to determine the risk factors.Patients between 18-45years with clinical and radiological evidence of stroke were considered.Relevant data was collected from MRD through structured proforma that included personal information,clinical findings and investigation details.Data was analysed using SPSS software.Patients with head injury were excluded from the study.

Observation: A total of fifty patients,34(68%) males and 16(36%) females diagnosed to have Stroke were taken in our study.Mean age of the study group was 32.7years. The majority of strokes occurred between 36-45years.The male to female ratio was 2.1:1. The most common risk factor for stroke in young population was smoking(44%), Hypertension(36%), Alcohol(34%), Dyslipidemia(28%), Hyperhomocystienemia(24%), Cardiac diseases (12%), APLA syndrome (4%), Tuberculoma (2%) etc,. In our study 47 patients (94%) had ischemic stroke and 3 patients (6%) had hemorrhagic stroke. Among patients with ischemic stroke 42.5% were smokers, 34% were alcoholic, 31.9% were hypertensive, 17% were diabetic, 48.9% had dyslipidemia, 25.5% had hyperhomocystienemia, 10.6% had cardiac diseases. Among patients with hemorrhagic stroke 66.6% were smokers, 33.3% were alcoholic, 100% were hypertensive, 66.6% were diabetic, 33.3% had dyslipidemia, none had hyperhomocystienemia, 33.3% had cardiac diseases.

Conclusion: Stroke in young is an important and emerging cause of morbidity among the young.Smoking and alcohol are the major acquired risk factors for stroke in young.Hypertension and DM were nonmodifiable risk factors for stroke in young.Every attempt should be made to identify risk factors, with the available resources,to limit the morbidity and mortality and achieve better prognosis.