Left Ventricular Hypertrophy: a Comparison Among Kurdish Patients with First-ever Ischemic Versus First-ever Hemorrhagic Stroke

Background and Aim: Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) has been proposed to be associated with an increased risk of stroke. We compared the prevalence of LVH among patients with first-ever ischemic versus first-ever hemorrhagic strokes. Material and methods: This observational study, which was conducted at the Sulaimaniya general teaching hospital from November 2009 to March 2012, involved 100 consecutive patients with their first-ever stroke. Fifty patients had ischemic stroke while the rest (n=50) developed hemorrhagic stroke. The presence of LVH was detected using transthoracic echocardiography and a comparison with respect to its prevalence between the 2 aforementioned groups was made. Results: The mean age of patients in the hemorrhagic group was 61.7 ±SD 11.2 years while in the ischemic group it was 63.9 ±SD 6.1 years. Out of 100 patients, 66 (66%) patients were males (31 in the hemorrhagic group and 35 in the ischemic group) while the rest (n=34; 34%) were females (19 in the hemorrhagic group and 15 in the ischemic one). Ninety one (91%) patients were hypertensive (47 in the hemorrhagic group and 34 in the ischemic group). Fifty three (53%) out of 100 patients demonstrated LVH (31 in the hemorrhagic group and 22 in the ischemic group). A head-to-head comparison between the two groups with respect to gender demonstrated no statistically significant difference in terms of the presence of LVH among patients with hemorrhagic versus ischemic strokes; males (P value 0.26; 95% CI 3.4-39.3); females (P value 0.43; 95% CI 16.7-43.8). However, a univariate analysis after correction for age and gender revealed a statistically significant difference between these groups (P-value 0.001; 95% CI 2.7-46.2). Conclusion: LVH was more common in Kurdish patients with first-ever hemorrhagic stroke than in those who had sustained their first-ever ischemic stroke. Further analytic studies are required to clarify the prevalence of LVH in patients with ischemic stroke.