Lipid profile and the risk of stroke: a study from North of Iran

Stroke is the second cause of mortality in the world and third in Iran and lipid abnormalities are the main cause of stroke. The relation of dyslipidemia and the risk of stroke is mater of controversy. The aim of this paper is to determine the relationship of dyslipidemia and the risk of stroke in Sayad Shirazi hospital, Gorgan, Northeastern Iran. Retrospectively, we investigated all medical records with a diagnosis of stroke based on International Classification of Diseases, Revision 10, from August 2015 to August 2016 in Sayyad Shirazi hospital. We include those records with laboratory reports on serum lipid profile. The National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III guideline was used to classifying lipid profile. The Data management and analysis was performed using SPSS 20. Out of 415 identified records, 9.6% had an unspecified diagnosis of stroke subtype. Only, in 160 records the lipid parameters were measured. The majority of cases with dyslipidemia was men (56.6%) and age older than 60 years (71%). There was a significant difference between ethnic groups and dyslipidemia (p=0.04) and between discharge outcome and lipid profile in women (p=0.05). Furthermore, the relation between dyslipidemia and another comorbid risk factor for stroke including diabetes (p=0.004), ischemic heart disease (0.035), and prior stroke (0.002) was significant. This study has shown that dyslipidemia coexisting with diabetes, ischemic heart diseases, and prior stroke increases the risk of stroke especially in older age. In general, therefore, it seems that lipid-lowering therapy must be one of the priorities in this population.