CT Scan Patterns of Stroke at the University of Gondar Hospital, North West Ethiopia

Background: In places like rural Ethiopia where there is no CT or MRI, the diagnosis of stroke remains by clinical signs and symptoms. Knowing the actual proportion of the types of stroke seen locally is helpful in the prevention, diagnosis and thereby treatment of this illness.
Objectives: The aim of the study was to determine CT scan pattern of stroke at the University of Gondar hospital so that the local proportion of stroke subtypes will be known.
Methods: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study which included all patients with a CT scan diagnosis of recent onset stroke in the time period of August 2011 to July 2012 at the University of Gondar Hospital; Northwestern Ethiopia.
Results of the Study: A total of 111 patients, 59(53.2%) male and 52 (46.8%) female were included in the study. The age range was from 16 to 88 years. The mean age for stroke is 49 years. Ischemic stroke was diagnosed in 64(57.7%) patients while the remaining 47 (42.3%) had hemorrhagic type. The hemorrhagic stroke had 30 (63.8%) parenchymal, 8(17%) ventricular, 4 (8.5%) subarachnoid and the remaining 5(10.6%) multifocal sites.
Conclusion: The rate of hemorrhagic type of stroke in this study is 42% which is about three times higher than stated by most authors for the largely Caucasian populations in Europe and America and is similar to studies done in Addis Ababa and in different parts of Africa on black patients. Although the percentage of stroke types differs, other studied features of stroke agree with universally accepted patterns.