Risk factors and subtypes of ischemic stroke in young patients: an observational study from a teaching hospital in Saudi Arabia.

Young adults are a key part of any society and the psychosocial and economic burden of any chronic or devastating disease in this particular group has significant consequences and impacts negatively on the development of the society as a whole. Although stroke in this age group is relatively rare, its consequences, in terms of lifelong dependence and disability, are substantial. Therefore, it is important to address this issue. In this retrospective epidemiological study, we analyzed the medical records of young patients (aged 18- 45 years) with a diagnosis of stroke during the study period (January 2014 - February 2018). The study population numbered 85 patients, and a male predominance was observed (67:18). Hypertension was the commonest risk factor, present in 43 (50.6%), followed by dyslipidemia and diabetes mellitus, present in 37 (43.5%) and 30 (35.3%) respectively. Lacunar infarction (LI) was the commonest type of stroke, observed in 30.6%, followed by cardioembolic stroke (20%). Of the other determined causes, Sickle cell disease was the most frequent etiology. Undetermined causes were less frequent in our study (15.6%) and the presence of multiple etiologies was the main reason for classifying patients in this group. Sickle cell disease was more common than arterial dissection in our study. In our cohort of patients, stroke risk factors and classification of stroke etiologies according to the Trial of Org 10172 in Acute Stroke (TOAST) criteria were found to be in accordance with the current literature. Slight discrepancies were observed in gender distribution and etiologies compared with other studies from Saudi Arabia and international studies, and these need to be examined further through prospective studies.