Objective: To determine the frequency of elevated homocysteine levels in patients with ischemic stroke.

Study Design: Cross-sectional study.

Place and Duration of Study: Department of Medicine Unit II, Jinnah Hospital, Lahore from 13th October 2017 to 12th April 2018.

Methodology: Two hundred and fifty subjects of ischemic cerebral stroke were included in this study using non probability sampling technique. Diagnosis of ischemic stroke was confirmed by CT brain and serum homocysteine level was measured in micromoles/L.

Results: The average age of our studied population was 64.9±11.5 years with 141 males (56.4%) and 109 (43.6%) females. Mean total homocysteine levels were 55.5±2.9 μm/L and the range was 8-148.7. Elevated homocysteine levels were found in 239 (95.6%) and were normal in 11 (4.4%). Highly elevated levels were present in 18 (7.5%), moderately elevated in 179 (74.9%) and lightly elevated levels were found in 82 (17.6%).

Conclusion: The elevated homocysteine levels are a strong risk factor for ischemic cerebral Stroke. About 74.9% of the patients with ischemic stroke had moderately elevated levels whereas 7.5% had highly elevated serum homocysteine levels.

Key words: Ischemic stroke, Elevated homocysteine levels