Current Epidemiologic Status of Stroke

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the epidemiological data of stroke patients admitted to Dong-Eui Hospital. METHOD: We performed a prospective study on 1370 cases of stroke consecutively admitted to the hospital from June, 2001 to May, 2002 during hospitalization by medical records and questionaire. RESULT: The highest incidence of the stroke was noted in the group of 60 years of age. The proportion of stroke subtypes were infarct (75.2%), intracranial hemorrhage (21.2%), and subarachnoid hemorrhage (3.6%). Sixteen percents of patients arrived over 24 hours after onset of stroke. The seasonal incidence was in order of frequency of spring, winter, autumn, and summer. The highest occurrence of the stroke was noted in May. The onset time of stroke was highest between 7: 00 am and 8: 00 am. Risk factors in stroke by the order of frequency were hypertension (61.1%), abnormal EKG at admission (45.5%), hyperlipidemia (38.3%), smoking (36.6%), previous stroke history (24.7%), and diabetes mellitus (24.7%). The common complications during hospitalization were pneumonia (7.6%), gastritis (5.6%), depression (4.8%), and hepatitis (4.6%). CONCLUSION: Although the results of this study obtained from one local hospital in Korea, they are valuable as basic epidemiologic data of stroke for the rospective community- based study in the future.

Phorbol Esters Attenuate The Action of Isoproterenol on Vascular Smooth Muscle

The effects of phorbol esters were studied in rabbit carotid artery to evaluate the action of protein kinase C on the regulation of vascular tone by isoproterenol. The vascular rings, 2 mm in width, were myographied isometrically in an isolated organ bath and the effects of phorbol 12,13-dibutyrate(PDBu) and phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate(PMA) were determined. Isoproterenol, a beta adrenergic agonist, relaxed the vessel which was precontracted by phenylephrine, but not that by phorbol esters. The action of isoproterenol was attenuated by removal of endothelium or pretreatment with methylene blue or nitro-L-arginine. The pretreatment with phorbol esters at concentrations which did not induce contraction, decreased isoproterenol-induced relaxation of vascular rings with or without endothelium. The action of PDBu on isoproterenol-induced relaxation was less effective than that of PMA, unlike those observed in contractile response, but the contractile effect of the former was more potent than that of the latter. PMA did not affect relaxant effect of forskolin, an activator of adenyl cyclase. Staurosporine, a protein kinase C inhibitor, inhibited the action of these drugs on both isoproterenol-induced relaxation and the contractile response. These results suggest that the relaxation induced by isoproterenol was reducd by the activation of protein kinase C, which may be isozyme different from that involved in contractile response.