The etiologies,risk factors and the imaging features of ischemic stroke in young adults:analysis of 41 cases

Objective To study the etiologies,risk factors and imaging features of ischemic stroke in young adults. Methods We analyzed 41 cases of ischemic stroke in young adults aged between 18 to 44 retrospectively,explored the etiology according to the TOAST classification criteria,analyzed the risk factors and imaging features. Results The identified etiologies for young adults with ischemic stroke in decreasing order of frequency were large-artery atherosclerosis,infective/non-infective cerebrovasculitis,cardioembolism,small-artery occlusion,vascular malformation and cerebral aneurysm. The most frequent risk factors of ischemic stroke in young adults included dyslipidemia,elevated level of Lp(a),cigarette smoking,hypertension,heart diseases and diabetes mellitus. Elevated level of ESR or hypersensitive-CRP was the trigger factor and increased the risk of ischemic stroke. There were strong correlations between the imaging features and the etiologic types of ischemic stroke,which could be useful for the etiologic diagnosis and the second prevention of stoke in young adults. Conclusions There are multiple eitologies and risk factors for ischemic stroke in young adults and large-artery atherosclerosis and cerebrovasculitis are the most common one among them. A thoughtful and thorough examination is required to identify the etiology for the young stroke patient.