Objectives: To describe the etiology of stroke and the frequency of cardiovascular risk factors in a group of patients under 50 years of age, hospitalized in the stroke unit of a public tertiary hospital in Ecuador.
Patients and methods: Descriptive and retrospective cross-sectional study of patients aged 50 and under, admitted between November 2016 and August 2019. Demographic data, cardiovascular risk factors, type of stroke, etiology door symptom time and the length of stay in the neurology department were analyzed. The results were compared between sexes.
Results: 45 patients were included. The mean age was 38 ± 10 years and there were no differences between the sexes. The 77.8% had some cardiovascular risk factors. Alcohol consumption predominated (33.3%), followed by smoking and dyslipidemia (22.2%). In general, and by sex, ischemic stroke (75.5%) was the most frequent. Intracerebral hemorrhage represented 24.4%. In the etiology of the ischemic stroke, an unusual cause predominated (35.3%), followed by cardioembolic stroke (26.8%) and that of undetermined etiology. For intracerebral hemorrhage, the most frequent etiology was hypertension (63.3%).
Conclusions: The high frequency of at least one modifiable cardiovascular risk factor, added to the delay in arrival at the hospital, constitute an alert to consider the need to insist on primary prevention and carry out information campaigns aimed to improve knowledge of the disease.
