BACKGROUND

Identification of the type of stroke upon presentation at the emergency room is paramount. The initiation of prompt treatment may pay dividends in the eventual outcome of strokes. This is a retrospective study. The aim of this paper is to determine if there is a correlation berween an elevared blood pressure and rhe occurrence of either an ischemic infarcr or a hemorrhagic infarct. It aims to determine if a systolic blood pressure of >160 mm Hg or a diastolic blood pressme of >110 mmHg may be correlated to an incidence of hemorrhagic strokes.

METHODS

A series of 273 consecutive patients hospitalized in our institution berween January 2006 and December 2006 with a diagnosis of stroke were reviewed from the stroke database of our institution. Analysis was carried out using the SPSS software package (version 10.0.1; SPSS Inc., Chicago, Illinois, USA).

RESULTS

There was no correlation among the key variables: a) none berween type of stroke and presence of severe systolic HTN, p > .05 (exact value = .075), b) none berween rype of stroke and presence of severe diastolic HTN, p > .05 (exact value= .240), and c) none between type of stroke and age (young-middle versus older), p > .05 (exact value= .088).

CONCLUSION

The study was not able to establish a correlation between elevated hypertension and stroke type. There was no significant correlation between either systolic hypertension or diastolic hypertension in the occurrence of intracerebral hemorrhage.

Human ; Stroke ; Ischemic Stroke ; Hemorrhagic Stroke ; Hypertension