Background and Objective: Cerebrovascular accidents are one of the most common causes of disability and mortality in human population all over the world. Several factors such as age, sex, hypertension, hyperlipidemia and heart diseases are risk factors for stroke. ِDue to high prevalence of cerebrovascular accidents and its related risk factors and particularly heart diseases, we decided to study echocardiography findings in patients with cerebrovascular accidents.
Materials and Methods: This descriptive study was conducted on 372 cerebrovascular patients who had been admitted to Zanjan Vali-e-Asr hospital in 2008. The data such as gender, age, type of cerebrovascular accidents, underlying disease and findings of echocardiography were collected and then they analyzed by appropriate software.
Results: Of 372 patients, 181 were men (48.6%) and 191 were women (51.4%). Systolic function in 321 cases (86.3%) was normal and it was abnormal in 51 cases (13.7%). Diastolic function in 304 cases (81.9%) was normal and in 68 cases (18.1%) was abnormal. Twenty -two cases had mitral stenosis and 198 patients had mitral regurgitation, whereas 23 cases showed both of them. Nine cases had aortic stenosis; similarly 80 cases were found with aortic regurgitation and only 5 cases had both of them. 165 cases were found with tricuspid regurgitation, while 1 case had both regurgitation and stenosis. Sixty- three cases had ejection fraction below 40%. In one case there was a clot.
Conclusion: High frequency of abnormal echocardiography findings in stroke leading to cardiac disorders is one of the most important risk factor of stroke. Thus, with echocardiography which is a non-invasive technique, many of heart problems can be diagnosed and consequently occurrence of cerebrovascular accidents can be prevented or treated.