ABSTRACT

Background: Around half a million people in the world suffer from acute cerebrovascular events in a year which mainly are due to infarction, intracerebral bleed and subarachnoid hemorrhage. Multiple electrocardiographic (ECG) abnormalities are frequently encountered in patients presenting with acute ischemic stroke.

Aim: To find the association between abnormal electrocardiography in patients presenting with acute ischemic stroke without any previous ischemic heart disease.

Setting and duration of study: Department of Internal Medicine, Sheikh Zayed Hospital, Lahore from January 2015 to June 2015.

Methodology: This is a Cohort study and 100 patients were enrolled in the study from the Emergency Department of Medicine, Sheikh Zayed Hospital, Lahore. Two groups were formed Group I patients with stroke, Group II normal controls. All candidates underwent ECG reporting by same Senior Cardiologist.

Results: In our study mean age was calculated as 56.72±7.20 in Group-I and 56.08±8.96 years in Group-II. 27(54%) patients in Group-I and 29(58%) in Group-II were male, while 23(46%) in Group-I 21(42%) in Group-II were female. Association between abnormal electrocardiography pattern in patients presenting with acute ischemic stroke without prior ischemic heart disease was calculated as 44(88%) in Group-I and 28(56%) in Group-II, p 0.0004 which is statistically significant.

Conclusion: There is an association between abnormal electrocardiography with acute ischemic stroke in patients without previous ischemic heart disease.

Keywords: Acute Ischemic Stroke, Abnormal Electrocardiography ECG, Association