Computed Tomographic Pattern of Stroke among Hypertensive and Diabetic Patients in Kano, Nigeria

Background: Stroke accounts for a significant proportion of neurological disorders and carries a high morbidity and mortality. Hypertension and diabetes mellitus are the major risk factors for stroke in Nigeria. Aims and Objectives: The need to determine the pattern of radiologic changes of stroke in patients with hypertension or diabetes mellitus on computed tomography scan (CT) of the brain. Materials and Methods: A prospective study using CT of the brain of 104 adult patients with stoke per group was carried out. Results were analyzed using (SPSS) version 16.0 software. Proportion of pattern of stroke in each group was analyzed and possible association between the sociodemographic factors was determined. Results: 104 diabetic patients (67 males and 37 females) and 104 hypertensive patients (68 males and 36 females) were studied. Their ages ranged from 3090 years. Most of the patients had thrombotic stroke with the diabetic having a higher proportion 92.3%) than their hypertensive counterparts (66.3%). The parietal lobe is most affected part with (58.7%) in hypertensive’s and 44.2% of the diabetics. The left side of the brain was most affected in more than 50% of both the hypertensive and diabetic stroke patients. Conclusion: Ischaemic stroke was equally prevalent in both diabetic and hypertensive patients while haemorrhagic stroke was more common among hypertensive patients. The parietal lobe and the left side of the brain were the more frequent area of predilection in both groups.