Stroke registry in Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital.

Background: Stroke ranks as the second major cause of death in Taiwan. For better understanding of stroke characteristics in southern Taiwan and to provide further information to other studies of stroke, we reviewed the clinical data of our in-patients with acute stroke.

Methods: Patients who were admitted to our hospital due to acute stroke between January 1999 and December 1999 were enrolled in our study. We used a stroke registration form to collect clinical data, including laboratory data, stroke subtype, risk factors, neurosonographic result, treatment, related complications, and Rankin Scale. Chi-square test was used to compare clinical parameters among the stroke patients.

Results: A total of 578 patients with acute stroke were enrolled in our study. Among 578 patients, 408 (71%) patients were of ischemic stroke and 170 (29%) patients were of hemorrhagic stroke type. In the ischemic stroke group, the prevalence rate of risk factors were hypertension (71%), intracranial arterial stenosis (41%), diabetes mellitus (37%), current smoking (30%), hyperlipidemia (30%), atrial fibrillation (15%) and extracranial carotid stenosis (15%). Hypertension (79%) and diabetes (17%) were also major risk factors in hemorrhagic stroke patients. The in-hospital case-fatality rate for ischemic stroke (8.8%) was less than that for hemorrhagic stroke (20.6%).

Conclusions: The proportion of hemorrhagic stroke in our acute stroke patients was higher in comparison to western countries. Hypertension, diabetes, smoking and hyperlipidemia were major modifiable risk factors in ischemic stroke. Better control of such risk factors is an important issue in either primary or secondary prevention of stroke. In our study, intracranial arterial stenosis (41%) was more common than extracranial carotid stenosis (15%). The result was different from western stroke registration. The cause is worth further study.