[Cerebrovascular disease in young women].

Abstract

Cerebrovascular disease is an important cause of morbi-mortality. Although its incidence is maximal in older groups, its incidence in young people cannot be forgotten, even more if we consider the socioeconomic and personal consequences derived from it. There are several works on this subject but few of them analyze the specific problem of stroke in women. There is some degree of controversy in this subject, specially about the role of several factors which are more prevalent or either exclusive for women.
We wanted to analyze the risk factors and clinical characteristics in a group of women under 45 who suffered a stroke and also to compare these risk factors between women under 35 and those from 35 to 45.
We have carried out a descriptive study, including 61 women under 45 admitted to our centre consecutively between January 1989 and October 1996.
Among the most prevalent factors we have found hypertension (27.8%), tobacco consumption (24.5%) and the presence of cardiac abnormalities (22.9%), specially associated to valvular pathology, as well as a higher incidence of contraceptives consumption in women under 35 (80%).
These factors are similar to those found in studies on the general population of young people. Our data indicate that the relevance of the main factors for stroke is common for both sexes and is also significant in young patients.