Echocardiographic Features of Patients with Stroke in Port Harcourt, Nigeria

Stroke is a major challenge to physicians worldwide, with a high incidence, mortality, disability rates and costs. selected for comparison. Patients who were less than 40 years, hemodynamically unstable or pregnant were excluded. Results: One hundred patients (61 males and 39 females) and 80 healthy controls (51 males and 29 females) were enrolled. There were more males than females in a ratio of 1.6:1 for the patients and 1.3:1 for the controls. Mean age of patients was 57.7 ± 8.4 years and 57.1 ± 8.8 years for controls. Mean body mass index was 27.8 ± 5.48 kg/m 2 in patients and 27.6 ± 4.72 kg/m 2 in controls. Left ventricular mass index of > 110 g/m 2 in females and > 134 g/m 2 in males was considered abnormal. The mean left ventricular mass index was higher in patients than in controls (140.3 ± 43.1 g/m 2 versus 88.1 ± 24.3 g/m 2 ; p < 0.001). Left ventricular hypertrophy was present in 60% of patients and 7.5% of controls (p < 0.001). Potential cardiac sources of embolism was found in 47% of the patients which includes left atrial dilatation (27%), left atrial dilatation with spontaneous echocardiographic contrast (3%), atrial fibrillation (7%), intracardiac thrombus (6%) and valvular heart disease (4%). Conclusion: Stroke patients have a high prevalence of LVH and potential cardiac sources of embolism which can be identified by echocardiography.