Fazil Babu K.P , Suchandra Sen
Stroke or a cerebrovascular accident is the sudden death of brain cells due to the inadequate blood flow. The WHO clinically defines stroke as ' the rapid development of clinical signs and symptoms of a focal neurological disturbance lasting more than 24 hours or leading to death with no apparent cause other than vascular origin'. The study was aimed to determine whether addition of aspirin to clopidogrel could have a greater benefit than clopidogrel alone in prevention of secondary vascular events in patients after TIA or ischemic stroke. It was a retrospective observational study with duration of six months. The study was conducted in the Department of Neurology, Kovai Medical Center and Hospital, a multi speciality hospital in Coimbatore,Tamil Nadu. Among the stroke patients, visiting the neurology clinic, 34.2 % of patients had recurrence of vascular events. The mean age of the study population was found to be 61.36 years. The age of onset of the study population was found to be varying from 41 to 90 years. About 31% of the total study population, were under the age group of 61-70 and they constituted the highest percentage.29% were found to be in the 51-60 age group.20% of total patients were under the age group of 71-80.In the age group of 41-50,the percentage was 14% and 6% were noted in 81-90 age group. In the total study population, 86.8 % were having hypertension as the risk factor.52.6 % patients were identified to be having diabetes and 34.2 % of patients had a previous history of stroke.Out of the total study population, 36 patients had ischemic stroke as the qualifying event and 2 patients were having Transient Ischemic Attack. The event rate for ischemic stroke in dual therapy group was found to be 35.48 % and 0.2% for TIA. The frequency of primary endpoint event was found out from the plot between the follow up period in months and number of patients at risk. The number of primary endpoints was found to increase in the follow up period in patients receiving dual therapy whereas in mono therapy there was only a small rise in the frequency of primary endpoint event. The event rates were more in patients under dual therapy. The primary events were found to have a significant association with gender, risk factors and therapy. No bleeding complications were observed in the study population.
