Relationship between risk factors, changes in cervical and transcranial triplex scan and post-stroke functional status in the elderly

• Autor(a) principal: Lopes, Adriana Oliveira
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Outros Autores: Nunes, Gil, Coelho, Patrícia, Rodrigues, Francisco, Pires, Joana
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://doi.org/10.25758/set.702
• topic: Acidente vascular cerebral; Fatores de risco; Idoso; Triplex scan cervical e transcraneano; Stroke; Risk factors; Elderly; Cervical and transcranial triplex scan

Introduction – Stroke is characterized by a sudden focal decrease in cerebral blood flow and causes physical and neurological deficits or death. Risk factors are important conditioning factors in the occurrence of stroke, leading to a decrease in the individuals’ functional status. Objectives – To relate the functional status after stroke in the elderly with the number of associated risk factors as well as the characteristics of the cervical (TSC) and transcranial (TST) duplex scans. Methods – A retrospective longitudinal observational study was carried out, consisting of a non-probabilistic convenience sample of 93 individuals aged over 65 years with a diagnosis of ischemic stroke admitted to the Neurology department of the Hospital de Vila Franca de Xira. Results – In the relationship between risk factors and the modified Rankin scale (mRS) at discharge, it was found that only in grades 1-2 of the scale there was a higher prevalence of individuals with more than three associated risk factors. In grades 0 and 4 of the scale, there was a higher prevalence of individuals with less than two associated risk factors. Comparing the relationship between cervical and cerebral alterations and mRS, it was found that in all grades of the scale, there was a higher prevalence of individuals with less than two associated alterations. Hypertension was the most important risk factor for the occurrence of stroke, being present in 84.8% of individuals. Discussion – Although no studies were found that assessed the functional status with the grouping of risk factors and changes at the cervical and cerebral level in the same way as what was done in this study, in this sample it was observed that the presence of a greater or lesser number of factors and alterations did not significantly lead to a worse functional status. Regarding arterial hypertension, this study corroborates other studies. Conclusion – We did not find a direct relationship between the number of risk factors and changes in TSC and TST present in each individual with their functional status at discharge, after the stroke. Hypertension was the most prevalent risk factor in the sample and, with regard to cervical changes, the most prevalent was the presence of atheromatous plaques.