J Korean Acad Rehabil Med.  1998 Dec;22(6):1159-1165.

Recent Epidemiologic Trends of Stroke

• Chon JS
• Chun SI
• Park SH
• Baek SY
• Kim DA

Abstract

OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study is to present the epidemiological data on patients with a stroke admitted to the severance hospital, Yonsei University College of Medicine (YUMC) and to investigate the significant risk factors of stroke.
METHODS
We reviewed medical records of 532 patients with a stroke admitted to the hospital of from 1992 to 1996 retrospectively.
RESULTS
The incidence was highest in the sixth decade. Ischemic stroke (64.3%) was more common than a hemorrhagic stroke (35.7%) and the thrombotic infarction was the leading type (28.3%) of all kinds of stroke. Middle cerebral arterial territory was the most commonly involved site for the thrombotic and embolic stroke. Of the intracerebral hemorrhages, basal ganglia (48.4%) was the most commonly involved site with was followed by the thalamus (24.2%), lobar (19.3%), and cerebellum (6.5%). In subarachnoid hemorrhages, the aneurysm was most frequently located in the middle cerebral artery (34.4%). The possible contributing factors of stroke were hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, cigarette smoking and diabetes mellitus. The common complications during hospitalization were the frozen shoulders, depression, pneumonia, reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD), and hydrocephalus.
CONCLUSION
This study showed the changing trends of stroke in its distribution of subtypes. Multicenter prospective study using stroke registry would be required for the determination of national epidemiologic trends.

Keyword

Stroke; Epidemiology; Risk factors

MeSH Terms

Aneurysm
Basal Ganglia
Cerebellum
Cerebral Hemorrhage
Depression
Diabetes Mellitus
Epidemiology
Hospitalization
Humans
Hydrocephalus
Hypercholesterolemia
Hypertension
Incidence
Infarction
Medical Records
Middle Cerebral Artery
Pneumonia
Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy
Retrospective Studies
Risk Factors
Shoulder
Smoking
Stroke*
Subarachnoid Hemorrhage
Thalamus