Long-term prognosis in young adults after a cerebral ischemic episode

To asses long term prognosis in young adults with cerebral ischaemia a follow up study was performed. Eighty-four patients aged 18 to 45 years with the diagnosis of the first-ever ischaemic stroke or TIA were followed up. Four of them (4.8%) died within the first four weeks of cerebral ischaemia onset. Information about all but one patient (98.75%) who survived the first episode of cerebral ischaemia was obtained. The follow up time lasted 4 months till 8 years (mean 52 months +/- 20 months). Three of the patients died during the follow up (all--vascular deaths), twenty one others experienced second cerebral ischaemia one month to 80 months after the first one. Among the patients with first-ever ischaemic stroke the calculated incidence of vascular death or recurrent stroke in the patients who survived the first episode was 5.6% per year, and after 24 months--10.9%. Twenty-eight day mortality rate was in that group 5.6%. Twenty-eight day mortality rate, was in our group similar to the data from the literature, but recurrent stroke and vascular deaths appeared in our material twice as often as in the literature. It could be the effect of lifestyle and socioenvironmental determinants.