Adnan Ghafoor, Jahanzeb Maqsood, Syed Assad Nabi.
The Effect of Total Cholesterol and Serum Triglycerides Level on Recovery from Acute Ischemic Stroke.
J Islamic Int Med Coll Jan ;12(1):20-4.

Objective: To determine the effect of serum total cholesterol and triglyceride levels on stroke recovery in patients with acute ischemic stroke. Study Design: This was an observational cross sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted at Shifa International Hospital Islamabad. Total duration th th of the study was 6 months starting from 5 August 2011 up till 4 February 2012. Materials and Methods:A total of 100 consecutive stroke patients fulfilling the inclusion criteria were recruited over a period of 6 months. Stroke severity was clinically assessed using the National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) at the time of admission and then again at the time of discharge from the hospital. Their blood sample were collected for Serum Cholesterol and Triglyceride estimation within first 24 hours of admission. Neurological improvement was assessed by the reduction in NIHSS score at discharge and was defined as good if it was ≥3. The data analysis was done by using SPSS version 20. Cross tabulation and Chi Square tests were applied to analyze the data. Results: Out of the 100 patients, 63 were males and 37 were females with a mean age of 63.7 years (SD 11.9). Patients with a normal or low cholesterol showed good recovery at the time of discharge in 41.3% of cases as compared to 68% of patients showing good recovery with a high total cholesterol levels. For the triglycerides level, there was good recovery in 49.2 % of patients with normal or low triglycerides levels while in patients with high triglyceride levels, good recovery was seen in 46.3% of patients. Conclusion: Our study shows a positive effect of high total cholesterol on early recovery following acute ischemic stroke but no positive or negative effect was evident with high serum triglycerides. This shows a possible role of serum cholesterol in prognosticating patients with acute ischemic stroke.

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