A study on serum level of Fibrinogen and its prognostic significance in patients with Acute Ischemic Stroke in Kilpauk Medical College & Hospital.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Stroke is the third commonest cause of death worldwide, after coronary heart disease (CHD) and all types of cancer. Fibrinogen is an independent risk factor for stroke and also predictor of future recurrences of stroke. Hence, Measurement of fibrinogen levels could be more useful than others as it is more specific to vascular disease. The objective of this study is to test the hypothesis that increased fibrinogen in ischemic stroke is related with severe onset and poor prognosis. METHODS: Patients admitted with history of acute onset of stroke in Department of Medicine within 48 hours of onset of stroke were enrolled in after excluding the exclusion criteria. Age and sex matched persons not having focal neurologic deficit and after verifying exclusion criteria were taken as controls. The study was done in 100 subjects ,50 cases and 50 controls. Fibrinogen was measured quantitatively by Clauss method. Severity was assessed using National Institute of Health Sciences Stroke Scale at admission. Reassessment of morbidity and mortality using Modified Rankin’s scale scores at one month follow-up. RESULTS: The mean fibrinogen level among cases was 612.20 and controls was 296.80, with a p value of 0.001 (< 0.05. In the study, the mean fibrinogen levels are higher in cases than controls irrespective of presence or absence of other risk factors,which was statistically significant(p