Early Neurological Deterioration in Acute Ischemic Stroke: potential Predictors, causes and relation to infarct growth

Abstract

Worsening of acute stroke early in its course (within 48–72 h of its onset) is a common occurrence and has potentially serious short term and long term consequences for the patient (Thanvi et al., 2008). Many studies consider increase in the total national institute of health stroke scale (NIHSS) score by at least 2 points a significant neurological deterioration (Helleberg et al., 2014: Kwan et al., 2006: Siegler et al., 2016: Haung et al., 2018). The incidence of END in ischaemic stroke among hospitalized patients varies widely in different studies between 13% and 38%. The current study is a hospital based prospective observational study carried out during the period from January 2017 to June 2018 at ain shams university hospitals.