Shireen Khawar, Muhammad Adnan Aslam, Abubakar Siddique, Ahsan Numan.
Serum Calcium Levels and Severity of Outcome in patients with Ischemic Stroke.
J Fatima Jinnah Med Uni Jan ;11(1):52-4.

Objective: To determine the outcome of ischemic stroke (in terms of NIHSS score) for the four different levels of serum calcium obtained at admission. Methods: This 6-months cross-sectional study was conducted at Neurology Department, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Lahore. All male and female patients presenting with Ischemic stroke having age between 18-60 years included in the study. Blood samples were obtained from all patients for serum calcium levels. According to serum calcium level, 4-quartiles were made: quartile 1: <8.7 mg/dl, quartile 2: 8.7-9.00 mg/dl, quartile 3: 9.01-9.30 mg/dl and quartile 4: >9.30 mg/dl. Patients were assessed after 1 week of admission for NIHSS scores. The collected data was analyzed using SPSS version 20. Results: A total 0f 64 patients were included in the study including 63.1% male. The mean age of the patients was 65.54 years. NIHSS score was highest in quartile 1 while it was lowest in quartile 4. Pearson?s correlation (r) of serum calcium level for NIHSS was found significant (p= 0.000) (r = -0.626) as overall. Conclusion: Lower serum calcium levels in the patients of ischemic stroke are associated with poor outcome.

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