Stroke: Incidence and Pattern in Benghazi, Libya

Abstract

, a total of 921 cases of stroke occurred in Benghazi, Libya. This provides a crude annual incidence rate for stroke of 48 per 100,000 population and a rate of 52 and 42 per 100,000 population for males and females respectively. The age-adjusted incidence rates were 162 and 133 per 100,000 population for males and females respectively for ≥ 45 years of age. Cerebral infarction was the most common type of stroke, accounting for 77%. Hypertension, smoking, diabetes mellitus and cardiac lesions were common risk factors among the male patients while hypertension, diabetes and cardiac lesions were common risk factors in females. Furthermore, females were found to have a high incidence of hypertension and diabetes when compared to males. However, 25% of males and 15% of females had no significant underlying risk factors. Fiftyfour cases of stroke occurred during the study period in the age group of 15 to 45 years and constituted "stroke in the young", giving an annual incidence rate of 14 per 100,000 and rates of 15 and 13 per 100,000 population for males and females respectively in this age group. Hypertension, diabetes and heart disease were important risk factors for stroke in the young. However, nearly 45% of males and 20% of females had no significant risk factors. Ann Saudi Med 1995;15(4):

Stroke in Arab countries: A systematic literature review

“…Thirty-one articles were included from the following Arab countries: Saudi Arabia (n=16) [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20], Qatar (n=4) [21][22][23][24], Libya (n=3) [25][26][27], Kuwait (n=2) [28,29], Jordan (n=1) [30], United Arab Emirates (n=1) [31], Bahrain (n=1) [32], Tunisia (n=1) [33], Iraq (n=1) [34] and Sudan (n=1) [35] (Fig. 2).…”

The epidemiology of stroke in the Middle East and North Africa

“…Incidence rates were age standardised to the world population using the direct method as described by Ahmed et al [11].…”

“…There were two other papers by Ghandehari in Iran [8] and ElZunni in Libya [11] in addition to Awada's paper from Saudi Arabia [6] which estimated the incidence of stroke in the young. The definition of young for Awada's paper was b45 whereas the definition of young for both Iranian [8] and Libyan papers [11] was aged 15-45 years.…”

“…The definition of young for Awada's paper was b45 whereas the definition of young for both Iranian [8] and Libyan papers [11] was aged 15-45 years.…”

Neurological Disorders in Libya: An Overview

“…It is unlikely that these results represent a true general decline in the incidence of stroke in Benghazi/Libya in such a short period of time; instead, case ascertainment is the likely explanation. The first study was conducted in the mid-1980s [4] , the time when private medical practice was banned in Libya, while the second study was conducted in the early 1990s [6] , after the opening up of the private medical sector. It is likely that many patients elected to be treated in the newly established private sector rather than in the university hospitals, leading to a false reduction in the recorded cases of cerebrovascular diseases.…”