No abstract

BACKGROUNDStroke constitutes a significant health problem in paediatric population. The reported incidence of childhood stroke is 2-6/100000 children per year in the past 10 years. The impact of childhood stroke can easily be realised in terms of economic, social and psychological burden related to disability of affected children and long-term sequelae that include social and economic sequences as well as neurologic and cognitive disabilities and epileptic disorders. The identification of aetiology and risk factors of childhood stroke is important as many of these are age and population specific. Brain infarcts and brain haemorrhages are significantly less common in patients younger than 20 years as compared to adult patients older than 65 years; and their clinical aetiologies also differ markedly from older patients. The risk factors of young stroke include congenital cardiac defects, cerebral vascular defects and various genetic and metabolic disorders. The commonest aetiologies in developed countries encompasses cerebral arteriopathies, congenital or acquired cardiac disease and serious systemic infections. Haematological factors such as thrombophilias also contribute. The commonest CNS infections associated with stroke can be categorised into viral, bacterial, parasitic and fungal in origin. Metabolic factors, AVM and intracranial aneurysm are also potential risk factors. There is no population based published data about the incidence or prevalence of paediatric stroke in India. In the hospital based studies from India, paediatric strokes have constituted less than 1% of all paediatric admissions and 5-10% of all stroke. We attempted to study the clinical profile and risk factors of childhood stroke in South Indian population attending our hospital.