ABSTRACT
A clinico-epidemiological analysis was performed of 2,414 consecutive stroke patients who were treated in our hospital during the 6-year period from 1997 through 2003. All the patients were neurologically examined and diagnostic studies were made by use of computed tomography. Cerebral infarction, cerebral hemorrhage, and subarachnoid hemorrhage accounted for 68%, 22%, and 10% of the stroke cases, respectively. The incidence of these subtypes of stroke in this region during the past 20 years was characterized by a singnificant decrease in cerebral hemorrhage, and an increased proportion of cerebral infarction. Men exceeded women in the incidences of both cerebral infarction and hemorrhage, whereas characteristically women far exceeded men in subarachnoid hemorrhage. The incidence reached a peak in the 70-79 age group regardless of the subtypes of stroke, and 64% of the entire stroke patients were those 70 and older. Women were found to suffer from stroke at much older age than men. As to the site of hemorrhage, putaminal hemorrhage was the most frequent, experienced by 36% of the patients, followed by thalamic hemorrhage in 34% of the patients. Putaminal and pontine hemorrhages predominated in the age groups younger than 60;thalamic, cerebellar and subcortical hemorrhages were predominant in the age groups older than 70. The incidence of these subtypes of hemorrhage during the past 20 years was characterized by a dramatic decrease in putaminal hemorrhage in a younger population, and a significant increase in thalamic, cerebellar, and subcortical hemorrhages in an older population.
