Search

Background and Objective: There is a lack of international collaborative studies on young adults with ischaemic stroke in Asia. The aim of this study was to investigate risk factors, aetiology and outcome at hospital discharge of these patients across 8 participating countries in Asia. Methods: This was a prospective, observational, multicentre, hospital based cohort study. Consecutive young stroke patients with confirmed cerebral infarction between the ages of 18-49 were recruited from December 2011 to May 2012. Data was collected for patient demography, risk factors, investigations, clinical profile and TOAST classification. Outcome measures were death and independence (modified Rankin score⩽ 2) at hospital discharge. Results: Two hundred and eighteen patients with the mean age was 40.8±6.7 years were recruited. There was a larger proportion of male patients with a ratio of 1.9:1. Traditional risk factors observed were hypertension (n=103; 47.3%), dyslipidaemia (n=93; 42.4%), smoking (n=85; 38.8%), diabetes (n=53; 24.3%), alcohol use (n=33; 15.0%), a previous history of stroke and transient ischaemic attacks (6.4%), family history (n=12; 5.5%), migraine (n=6;2.8%), pregnancy related (n=5; 2.3%) and numerous cardiac risk factors (0.9-5.5%). The majority suffered arterial infarction; n=216 (99.4%) while n=2 (0.6%) had venous strokes. The predominant stroke subtypes were large artery atherosclerosis (LAA); 29.8% and small vessel occlusion (SVO); 20.2%. LAA and SVO accounted for 37.5% of all stroke subtypes in the ⩽36 year age-group. Cardioembolism (15.1%) and stroke of determined aetiology (14.7%) contributed to the other categories of identified stroke subtypes. Mortality on hospital discharge was 3.1% while 65.1% of patients were independent on discharge. Conclusion: This study demonstrated the substantial presence of premature atherosclerosis and conventional risk factors in young ischaemic stroke patients from 8 Asian cities. Venous infarction from cerebral venous thrombosis was rare in this study. Outcome on hospital discharge was poorer compared to Western studies. Detection of vascular risk factors and primary prevention measures should be initiated during late adolescence or early adulthood in urban Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]