engleski

Female stroke

AIMS: Stroke has mostly been considered a male disease, and male gender as a risk factor for cerebrovascular diseases. However, recent research shows that women suffer from stroke more often, and that it is more lethal for female than male patients. The aim of this pilot study was to investigate the situation in Osijek area. METHODS: A group of 100 patients, average age 70, 5 years ; 45 females and 55 males with stroke treated in Department of neurology, Clinical hospital center Osijek was included. Patients were grouped according to gender and the following were investigated in each group: distribution of stroke according to groups of age, frequency of hemorrhagic and ischemic stroke, frequency of ischemic stroke subtypes, presence of certain risk factors, occurrence of complications during hospitalization and final outcome at discharge. RESULTS: In average, women were older than men at the time of first stroke. Differences in occurrence of risk factors were also noticed. The frequency of complications was almost equal, except for uroinfections, which were, as expected, more frequent in women due to specific structure of female urinary tract. Women had poorer outcome of stroke and higher case–fatality rate than men. CONCLUSIONS: Biological differences like hormonal status (effect of estrogen and testosterone on endothelium and vascular system), influence of risk factors present only in women (oral contraceptives usage, hormone replacement therapy, and pregnancy), specific life-styles, comorbidity (migraine, thrombophilia), and longer life-span of women can explain some of the gender differences, however, a lot of details still remain unclear.

women; stroke; risk factors; complications; outcome

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