Study of the main risk factors frequencies for ischemic cerebrovascular disease in elderly patients

Abstract

Two hundred and sixty two patients with clinical diagnosis of permanent ischemic stroke, all of them aged 60 or more were retrospectively studied from the 1015 cerebrovascular diseases (CVD) records of the Atherosclerosis Ligue of the Neurology Clinics of the ISCMSP, from 1990 to 2002. The study emphasized modifiable risk factors frequencies for ischemic stroke in this population, considering gender and age of the patients. Results have evidenced that systemic arterial hypertension is a main risk factor significantly frequent in old people (87.8%), independently of gender and age. Smoking (46.9%) and alcohol consumption (35.1%) have revealed to be very frequent important modifiable risk factors especially among men. Lower frequencies have been presented for cardiac diseases (27.0%), Diabetes Melitus (19.9%), and dislipidemia (15.6%) as risk factors for ischemic stroke in old people of both genders and all ages after 60. There was relatively low frequency of hiperuricemia in this set of patients.