2025/08/19 by Onwuchekwa, R. Chinwe, Onwuchekwa, A. C.
paper · doi:10.82235/wajr.vol16no1.196
Background: Stroke is a common cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Therapeutic decision. regarding its management requires accurate diagnosis of stroke type and exclusion of mimics. Computed tomography (CT) scan has been found to be the gold standard in distinguishing haemorrhagic from ischemic stroke. AIM: The aim of this study is to evaluate the pattern of CT finding in stroke patients in University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital and assess the accuracy of clinical assessment of stroke pattern. Method: A retrospective review of computed tomography findings in 68 consecutive patients who were referred from different private clinics and medical ward of UPTH to the Radiology department with clinical diagnosis of stroke was undertaken over a period of one year (April 2007-March 2008). Age, sex, clinical diagnosis, CT finding and the interval between ictus and CT scan were recorded. All the CT examinations were performed on GE Hispeed-NX/1 Base-2002 Dual slice helical CT. Evaluation was done by consultant radiologists in the department. Results: A total of 68 patients were scanned for stroke evaluation during the period under review, 37(54.4%) males and 31(45.6%) females, giving a male: female ratio of 1.6:1. The age range was 29-84. The mean interval between ictus and CT scan was 9 days. Nine patients had normal CT findings. Stroke patients were 48 (70.6%), 38(79.2%) were cerebral infarction while 10(20.8%) were intracerebral heamorrhage. 2 (2.9%) patients had generalized cerebral edema, 1(2.2%) patient had brain tumour and 8 (11.8%) had generalized cerebral atrophy. Conclusion: Evaluation of stroke pattern in this study shows that infarction is the commoner form of stroke subtype in this study. Stroke mimics were few. Stroke patients presented late and clinical differentiation of stroke subtypes are not reliable. Key words: computed tomography, hemorrhage, infarction, stroke