Abstract :
Objectives: This study had been designed to find therelative frequency of each of ischemic stroke’s riskfactors and to evaluate the action of the first contactphysician for transient ischemic attack (TIA) cases.Methods: This study is a cross sectional study thatenrolled 100 randomly selected patients with clinical andradiological diagnosis of ischemic stroke, who hadattended Al-Yarmouk Teaching Hospital, Baghdad, Iraqduring the period between the 1st of January 2002 andthe 1st of July 2002.Results: The patients’ age range was 40-79 years old(mean 63.57 years, SD 8.31, coefficient of variation0.31). Forty-four patients (44%) were smokers, 34patients (34%) were hypertensive, and 28 patients (28%)were diabetics. Of those under the age of 55, 78.6% had 2or more risk factors. Positive history of TIA wasobserved in 28 patients (28%), 64.3% of whom (18patients) had consulted a physician for their TIAsymptoms and 35.7% of them had ignored theirsymptoms. Only 25% of those with positive history ofTIA had been managed properly by the first contactphysician. Thirteen patients (46.4% of those with historyof TIA) had been treated with antithrombotic drugs.Conclusions: Significant numbers of patients don’tworry about the symptoms of TIA and ignore it, anothergroup are not subjected to full investigations to reach thecause and risk factors of TIA. Workshops are needed toincrease education levels of the population about TIA andthe modifiable risk factors of stroke.
