Ecocardiographic, neurosonological and biological markers in the differential diagnosis of ischemic stroke

Abstract

Cerebrovascular disease is an important and well-studied health problem; it has been the leading cause of disability, the second of dementia and the third of death in developed and developing countries for decades.

The general objective of this study was to define the value of transthoracic echocardiography, neurosonological and biological markers in the differential diagnosis of ischemic strokes and the specific objectives was to identify socio-demographic variables and risk factors and determine the behavior of the biological, neurological, electrocardiographic and echocardiographic variables, according to the type of stroke. It is a descriptive and observational study based on data obtained from the 127 medical records of patients with the diagnosis of ischemic cerebrovascular disease, selecting a total of 79 records of patients who had undergone transthoracic echocardiography and ultrasound Doppler of the neck arteries, at the National Institute of Neurology Neurosurgery of Cuba in the period from January 2017 to December 2019. Of the 79 clinical histories evaluated, 35.44% (n=28) were embolic strokes, while the remaining 51 cases (64.55%) were non-embolic.  Males (53.16%) predominate in the entire sample. The arterial hypertension related with the 88.23% of non-embolic strokes and with 39.28% of embolic stroke (p<0.0001). Some risk factors such as age and history of arterial hypertension, heart failure and previous cerebrovascular disease were relevant in terms of their relationship with the stroke profile in the present research It is concluded that the electrocardiographic, echocardiographic, neurosonological and metabolic variables used were decisive in the differential diagnosis of stroke in this group of patients studied, with the echocardiographic and neurosonological variables being the most significant.