Association between Plasma Homocysteine Level and Ischemic Stroke

Background: epidemiologic studies have identified hyperhomocysteinemia as a possible risk factor for atherosclerosis. the aim of my study was based on evaluation of relationship between homocysteinemia with ischemic stroke patients. methods and materials: it was a prospective observational study conducted in the department of neurology, sir salimullah medical college & mitford hospital, dhaka. thirty six consecutive patients with ischemic stroke were analyzed by serum total homocysteine, total cholesterol, hdl-cholesterol, ldlcholesterol, triglyceride and equal number of controls same ages were compared with the case group. result: mean fasting blood sugar, serum fasting total cholesterol (tc), serum fasting low density lipoprotein (ldl) were significantly higher in case group (p=0.001). serum tc and ldl had a positive correlation with serum homocystine a (p=0.001). serum high density lipoprotein (hdl) had a negative correlation (p=0.718) and serum triglyceride (tg) had a negative correlation (p = 0.182). total plasma fasting homocysteine level in case group was 21.89 ± 9.38 ìmol/land control group was 12.31 ± 3.27 ìmol/l, (p=0.001). elevated fasting homocystein level was found in 75.0% of ischemic stroke patient and in 16.67% of healthy controls (p=0.001). the incidence of hyperhomocysteinemia is higher in ischaemic stroke cases than that in age-sex matched healthy controls. conclusion: hyperhomocysteinemia is strongly associated ischaemic stroke patients. hence it seems to be an important vascular risk factor in this study.