risk factors associated with ischemic stroke: a case-control study

Background & aim: stroke is the second common cause of deaths and the third common cause of disability-adjusted life years worldwide in 2010, so knowledge of risk factors within a certain country is an essential step in reducing the stroke rate and resulting disease burden . methods & materials: this was a case–control study to determine and assess risk factors influencing ischemic stroke. in this study, 72 stroke patients hospitalized in firoozgar hospital of tehran city for ischemic stroke from june 2012 to september 2013 were considered as a case group, and 72 individuals were selected as a control group that referred to the same laboratory of the hospital due to the causes other than risk factors for cardiovascular disease. the association between various risk factors such as history of cardiovascular disease, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, migraines, and stroke has been investigated. multivariate regression analysis was implemented to estimate the odds ratio (or) of each risk factor for stroke events. results: findings showed that according to multivariate logistic regression, factors such as a history coronary heart disease (or = 23.33, p = 0.002) and hypertension (or = 6.9, p = 0.001), low high-density lipoprotein (hdl) (or = 6.84, p < 0.001), history of coronary heart disease, and cerebrovascular disease in first degree relatives (or = 4.18, p = 0.007), have been identified as a predictor of ischemic stroke. conclusion: following this hospital-based study of iranians, we demonstrated that among various risk factors, history of coronary heart disease, hypertension, as well as low hdl, and history of coronary heart disease and cerebrovascular disease in first degree relatives are the strongest independent predictors of stroke.