title: Prognostic value of electrocardiography and electroencephalography in patients with ischemic stroke.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Stroke is the most common disease among neurological disorders, often resulting in handicap, complications and mortality. Recent studies revealed that electrocardiography (ECG) and electroencephalography (EEG) were noninvasive but effective methods to assess the prognosis of stroke patients. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the use of EEG and ECG for the prognosis of ischemic stroke.
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirty five patients with supratentorial ischemic stroke and muscle weakness were included in the study carried out at the Ali-EbneAbitaleb Hospital, Rafsanjan, Iran. At admission, muscle power was recorded for every patient. EEG and ECG were performed on patients within 12 hours of admission. The muscle power was re-evaluated for all study cases at 3 months. The data were analyzed using SPSS software; Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Opium addiction (45.7%), hypertension (40%), and smoking (28.6%) were the most common risk factors. ECG change was seen in 71.4% of patients (ST-T change: 51.4%, QT: 22.9%). No significant correlation was seen between ECG and muscle power changes at three months among stroke patients. 57.1% of patients had mild to severe abnormality in EEG and a significant correlation was seen between EEG and muscle power changes at three months (P= 0.01).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study showed that EEG abnormality was positively correlated with poor prognosis in our patients with ischemic stroke. This study did not show any significance for ECG, which may be due to a small patient number, and further study is needed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Ali Ebne Abitaleb Hospital, Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences, Rafsanjan, Iran. swt_f@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Farhad
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Iranmanesh
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D002545:Brain Ischemia / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004562:Electrocardiography; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000150:complications; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018908:Muscle Weakness / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011379:Prognosis; D012307:Risk Factors; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects; D020521:Stroke / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology