Frequency of Hyperthermia in Acute Ischemic Stroke Patients Visiting a Tertiary Care Hospital.

OBJECTIVE To determine the frequency of hyperthermia in acute ischemic stroke patients visiting a tertiary care hospital in a developing country. STUDY DESIGN Cross-sectional, observational study. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY Medical Wards of Civil Hospital, Karachi, from January to June 2013. METHODOLOGY Patients aged ≥18 years of either gender with acute ischemic stroke presenting within 24 hours of onset of symptoms were included. Written informed consent was obtained from all participants as well as approval of ethical review committee of the institute. Axillary temperature by mercury thermometer was monitored at the time of admission and after every 6 hours for 3 days. The data was analyzed using SPSS version 17.0 (SPSS Inc., IL, Chicago, USA). RESULTS Atotal of 106 patients of ischemic stroke were included. The mean age of enrolled participants was 60.1 ±9.5 years. Among these, 61 (57.5%) were males and 45 (42.5%) females. Among all patients, 51.9% presented with loss of consciousness, 30.2% with slurred speech, 77.4% with limb weakness, and 9.4% with decrease vision. Atotal of 17 (16%) patients with ischemic stroke developed hyperthermia. When the prevalence of hyperthermia was stratified according to age, among patients of < 60 years of age, 26% developed hyperthermia compared to 7.1% in patients of ≥60 years of age (p=0.008). On gender stratification, among male patients, 14.8% developed hyperthermia compared to 17.8% in female patients (p=0.43). CONCLUSION It is concluded from this study that the frequency of hyperthermia in ischemic stroke was 16% and it should be looked for as it has significant impact on the outcome. The hyperthermia was significantly more common in younger adults as compared to older adults. However, gender had no influence on the prevalence rate of hyperthermia.