title: Aetiology and prognostic factors of patients admitted for stroke.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To see the etiology and prognostic factors related to mortality of patients with stroke.
  
  
  METHODS
  Retrospective analysis of patients admitted with stroke in two hospitals of same locality over 8 years.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 12,454 cases admitted in medical units of hospital 796 (6.4%) had stroke. Majority of cases were between 4th and 6th decades of life. Fifty percent (304/606) were hypertensive, 19% (113/606) had cardiac disease and 18% (112/606) diabetes mellitus. Four percent (27/606) had previous history of stroke and 17% (102/606) were smokers. Of the 144 cases who had CT Scan 99 (69%) had infarct and 45 (31%) haemorrhage; overall mortality was 30% (288/971) and it was significantly high in cases over 60 years of age, cases with history of unconciousness at the onset and those with severe hypertension. Mortality rate in the community hospital was significantly higher (33%) as compared to private hospital (13%) (p 0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Cardiac disease is one of the precipitating factors of stroke with infarct being the major cause. Mortality increased with the advancement of age.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Ziauddin Medical University Hospital, Karachi.
authors.forename: E A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Vohra
authors.forename: W U
authors.initials: WU
authors.lastname: Ahmed
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ali
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010154:Pakistan / Q000453:epidemiology; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D020521:Stroke / Q000453:epidemiology*