Risk factors for stroke in young people

The risk factors of stroke in young adults and in the whole population are the same in general, but there are some special risk factors in young adults. They are congenital or early acquired diseases which are complicating with early stroke. We studied the risk factors of cerebrovascular insults in 150 patients, 20-49 years old (Table 1). This was 26.04 percent of all patients that were hospitally treated in the urgent neurological department over one year. However, twenty years ago, this percent was 20.20 [2]. We found that arterial hypertension was dominant both among young adults (47.99 percent) and in the whole population (Table 2) [1-3]. Essential hypertension was the most frequent, and renal and thyreotoxical hypertensions were rare. The atherogenic level of low density and high density lipoproteins (LDL/HDL) was present in 14.66 percent of young adult patients [3]. Diabetes mellitus, a known risk factor of stroke, was found in 5.33 percent of our studied patients, especially in the juvenile form [1-3]. Besides juvenile diabetes mellitus, we found other risk factors that were characteristic of young adults: systemic lupus erythematosus (3.33 percent), which began at an early vital age, and numerous cerebrovascular complications appeared during the first five years of illness [7]. In this group of young adults, we found no other type of vasculitis, which also can be a risk factor of stroke. Great risk factors of stroke in young adults were arterial-venous malformation, brain aneurysm and congenital muscular hypoplasia of the carotide and middle caliber cerebral arteries-multiple progressive intracranial arterial occlusion or Nishimoto Takeuchi disease or Moya Moya disease, which were found in 3.99 percent of our patients. These diseases were complicated by cerebrovascular haemorrhagic or ischaemic insults over the young vital period [9]. The similar was with congenital or early acquired (rheumatic fever) heart valve defects (3.99 percent in our group), with early cerebrovascular complications due to cardiogenic thromboembolism mechanisms [10]. In 2 percent of patients the stroke was the consequence of anticoagulant therapy. These were the patients with operated heart valve defects (haemodynamic risk factor was eliminated, but haemorrheological risk factor was evident) [2, 3]. Also, disturbances of cardiac rhythm were risk factors of stroke in 2 percent of our patients. The mechanism of stroke originated is cardiogenic thromboembolism or global hypotension and the following ischaemia in the border brain zone [11]. All these risk factors were present in a relatively small number of patients, but they were "strong" risk factors of stroke, especially in young adults. On the other hand, there were nicotinism, alcoholism and obesity. They were present in a greater percent (25.33; 15.66; 18.66 percent), but their influence was slow and indirect by haemorrheologic mechanism (the increasing aggregation of platelets, reduced flexibility of red and white blood cells, changed prostacycline-prostaglandin relation in endothelial and blood cells, viscosity of blood, LDL/HDL) [2, 3, 12, 13]. A prolonged psychogenic stress (8.66 percent in our group) was, also, a risk factor of stroke. It induced increase in catecholamine level, arterial hypertension, constriction of blood vessels, endothelial cell damages, increased aggregation of platelets, changed prostacycline-prostaglandin relation, metabolism of lipids and polysaccharides) [2, 3]. We found no abuse of ephedrine [16] or cocaine [15] as risk factors of stroke in our group, although it was described in litterature. Also, we found no postoperative thromboemolism (foramen ovale apertum). Ischaemic cerebrovascular insults dominated (77.34 percent) in our group of patients. In one article (Canada) [17] haemorrhagic insults were dominant in young adults. In our opinion, the number of our patients was not adequated, as haemorrhagic stroke is also treated in neurosurgical departments. The mor