Abstract

URBAN, Luis; HIGGIE, Juan  and  GAYE, Andrés. Cerebral infarction vertebrobasilar territory: Communication of a number of patients assisted at the Hospital de Clinicas in Montevideo. Rev. Urug. Med. Int. [online]. 2016, vol.1, n.2, pp.44-52. ISSN 2393-6797.

Introduction:The incidence and mortality of stroke in Uruguay is high. Posterior circulation strokes represent a significant percentage of them. In this study we describe baseline characteristics, clinical presentation, diagnostic test and therapy in a cohort of patients with stroke of posterior circulation. Method: Descriptive observational study. Inclusion: patients with a diagnosis of PC stroke admitted to Hospital de Clinicas between June 2007 and 2014. Results: 140 patients were included. Mean age was 68 years and a high frequency of classic risk factors for cerebrovascular disease was found. Cerebellar and pyramidal clinic were the most frecuent, with a low median score in the NIHSS scale (5.2) and low sensitivity of the craneal tomography for the diagnosis. The most prevalent etiology was cardioembolism. A fifth of patients consulted before 4.5 hours and 3.8% of patients were treated with iv thrombolysis. Discussion and comments: This is the largest series of PC strokes reported in our country. Clinical presentation was similar to that described in the literature. NIHSS scale underestimated the severity of this type of stroke. Craneal tomograhphy had low diagnostic sensitivity and the number of magnetic resonances performed was low. A small number of patients consulted on time for iv thrombolysis and only 3.8% of cases underwent such treatment.

Keywords : Stroke; Posterior circulation; Stroke Unit; Thrombolysis.

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