in Albania - Instituti i Shendetit Publik

INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC HEALTH CONFERENCE IN TIRANA, ALBANIARetrospective study of cerebral infarction casesdiagnosed with carotid angio-CTAltina Xhaferi 1 , Medien Xhaferi 2 , Ilirjana Zekja 1 , Klodiana Poshi 1 ,Astrit Hoxhaj 31Faculty of Technical Medical Sciences, University of Medicine, Tirana, Albania;2University Trauma Hospital, Tirana, Albania;3Hygeia Hospital, Tirana, Albania.Aim: Carotid CTA is a useful examination for themanagement of ischemic stroke and atherosclerosislinked with vascular risk factors. Age and gender areindependent factors for stroke. Lacunar strokeseems to be attributed to chronic HTA, diabetesmellitus, while non-lacunar infarction to CAS andAF. Our aim was to describe cases of cerebralinfarction diagnosed with carotid angio-CT inAlbania.Methods: A retrospective case review study ofpatients that performed carotid CTA (527 cases) inTirana was conducted in 2012. The study samplewas retrieved from in-hospital admissions as wellas outpatients. Cerebral non-lacunar and lacunarinfarction patients who performed CT scanningand/or magnetic resonance imaging were examinedand compared with regard to CAS.Results: There was a significant associationbetween age and the grade of carotid artery stenosis(P=0.001). Furthermore, there was a statisticallysignificant male predominance (P=0.001). Also, therewas evidence of a significant correlation betweengrade of CAS and smoking (P=0.001), CAS andHTA (P=0.001), CAS and diabetes (P=0.001), CASand high cholesterol (P=0.001). Finally, there wasevidence of significant difference between CAatherosclerotic plaques in non-lacunar (54%) versuslacunar infarction (36%) [P