Cerebrovascular Diseases and Infection

Abstract

Background: Recently, the relationship between stroke and infection has been the subject of many studies, and acute infection accompanying ischemic stroke has been reported as a risk factor for stroke. Method: In this study, the infection history of 89 patients with acute ischemic stroke who were inpatients in Bak›rköy State Hospital for Neurologic and Psychiatric Diseases, were compared with a control group which consisted of 79 patients. The risk factors for ischemic stroke in both groups were also compared. Findings: In the patient group, 36 subjects (40.4%) had an infection one month before stroke, and in the control group 18 subjects (22.8%) had an infection in the same time interval (p=0.015). The evaluation of time distribution of infections revealed that the infections were mostly seen one week before stroke in the patient group (12 of 36 cases), and in the control group the infections were distributed almost equally in the four weeks. The most frequent infection seen was upper respiratory tract infection in both groups. The etiologies and severity of stroke were not different in the two groups. Conclusion: We think these results suggest that the infections one week before stroke may be a risk factor for stroke