Does gender influence the clinical characteristics of ischaemic stroke in patients aged 45–74 years?

Introduction. Modern studies seek to determine how age and gender affect morbidity and mortality, risk factors, causes, disease severity, and functional brain recovery after ischaemic stroke.

The study aimed to investigate the effect of gender on the main clinical characteristics of carotid territory infarction in patients aged 45–74 years who did not undergo thrombolysis or mechanical thrombectomy.

Materials and methods. We examined 124 patients: 77 (62.1%) men and 47 (37.9%) women of middle age and older, with carotid territory infarction, who were admitted to the Research Center of Neurology in the first 48 hours after neurological symptom onset. The ischaemic stroke subtype, stroke severity, level of functional dependence, and level of daily and motor activity in patients were established.

Results. In our group, women were older than men by 4 years on average (p = 0.018). The mean female age was 67 years (58–71 years), while the mean male age was 63 years (58–66 years). Women were more often diagnosed with cardioembolic stroke, while men were more often diagnosed with an atherothrombotic stroke. Ipsilateral internal carotid artery stenosis >50% and left ventricular hypertrophy were more common in men than women, while left atrial dilation was more common in women. No significant differences were found between the two genders in the clinical presentation, acute stroke severity, and functional brain recovery.

Conclusion. In middle and older age patients, gender does not affect ischaemic stroke morbidity and rate of functional brain recovery by the end of the acute stroke period.