ETIOLOGY OF CAROTID FSCBEMIC CEREBRUASCULAR STROKE

Abstract

mong all neurological diseases of adult life, ""'cerebrovascular ones clearly rank first in frequency and importance (Adams, 1997). Stroke is the third leading cause of death and a major cause of long term disability in most developed countries (Vemmos et al, 1999).

Ethnic variation does exist in the susceptibility of different races to cerebrovascular stroke as the author emphasized the important racial differences in distribution of atherosclerosis as Caucasians were .found to have predominantly extracranial disease, African-Americans with predominantly intracranial disease, whereas Asian population, was found to have intracranial cerebral atherosclerosis more severe than extracranial disease and distal intracranial branches were commonly involved among Chinese people (Davis, 1998).

In addition, previous studies showed that significant atherosclerosis of the extracranial portion of internal carotid artery is not common in Egyptian population (Zakaria et al, 1998).

Moreover, cardioembolic stroke constitutes 20% of ischemic strokes as several cardiac disorders, atrial fibrill ation, mitral valve disease and acute myocardial infarction are associated with increased risk of ischemic stroke. Atrial fibrillation increases, the relative risk of ischemic stroke about five fold from about 1% per year to about 5% per year for many elderly people. Whether the