Clinical and Radiologic Presentations of Acute Ischaemic Stroke at a Single Tertiary Institution

Abstract

This study sought to determine the number of patients presenting to our centre with acute ischaemic stroke (AIS) of the middle cerebral artery (MCA) territory and to analyse the proportion that met the Alberta Stroke Program Early CT Score (ASPECTS) criteria for intravenous (IV) thrombolysis or mechanical thrombectomy. It further investigated the common risk factors and presenting symptoms in the study population.

The study included 356 participants, most of whom (82%) had at least one known risk factor, with the most prevalent being hypertension (64%). Patients most frequently presented with symptoms of limb numbness/weakness (76%), face numbness/weakness (60%) and dysphasia/aphasia (53%). Most of the population had an ASPECTS ≥8 (80.62%). The presence of a hyperdense MCA sign was significantly associated with an ASPECTS of 0-4 (P = .03), whilst absence of this was significantly associated with an ASPECTS ≥8 (P = .015). Most patients (92.13%) presented >6 hours after the onset of symptoms.