Abstract

Background: Stroke is the third leading cause of death throughout the world. The prolonged morbidity and extended hospitalization required by these patients makes the disease one of the most devastating in medicine. An acute stroke is defined as a focal or global deficit of brain function lasting for more than 24 hours which had occurred within 2 weeks of the patient's presentation and which was considered on admission to have vascular cause. Computed tomography has greatly facilitated the diagnosis and management of stroke and added significantly to our understanding of pathophysiological brain alterations. The purpose of the present study is to document the presence or absence of haemorrhage or infarcts, to determine the size, location and reasonably assessing the territory to blood vessels involved and to detect the incidence of negative cases of clinically suspected stroke.

Materials & Methods: 300 cases of clinically suspected CVA, which was submitted for CT evaluation from October 2016 to September 2018 were included in this study.

Results: Out of the 300 patients clinically suspected of CVA submitted for CT scan study of the brain. 190 patients i.e., 63.33% had infarcts, 75 patients i.e., 25% had haemorrhage, 4 patients i.e., 1.33%had C.V.T., 15 patients i.e., 5% had S.A.H, 5 patients i.e., 1.66% had tumours, 11 patients i.e., 3.66% had normal scans. Infarcts formed the major group of the CVA cases i.e., 63.33%. Involving most commonly the R.MCA territory in 50 patients i.e., 26.31 %. Haemorrhage formed the second major group of the CVA cases i.e., 25%. Involving most commonly the L.MCA territory in 20 patients i.e., 26.66%.

Conclusion: CT scanning is a "Gold Standard" technique for the diagnosis of acute stroke and management of stroke depends upon "accurate diagnosis" and should be ideally done in all cases.