[Study on the quality of life in patients with ischaemic stroke]

To study the quality of life (QoL) and functional neurological status of patients three years after suffering their first ischaemic cerebrovascular accident (CVA).

For the study we chose patients who presented ischaemic CVA, classified in categories I 63 to I 69. QoL and functional neurological status were measured using the modified Rankin Scale (mRS) and the SF-36 health questionnaire, respectively.

Of a total of 59 patients who answered the surveys (mean age: 62 years; sex: 51% females), nearly half of them (29 patients; 49.1%) presented some kind of disability (mRS = 2). Thirty patients (50.9%) were independent or presented minimum sequelae (mRS = 1) at the end of the follow-up period. The mean QoL with the SF-36 questionnaire progressively diminished as the mRS score increased, especially in the group with mRS = 3. Although the youngest age group (range: 20-36 years) got the best average score (84 points) on the SF-36, no significant differences were found with the remaining age groups; the group made up of 75-year-olds and above was the one that obtained the lowest average score (63 points). Extensive strokes (total anterior circulation infarctions) of a cardioembolic origin (atrial fibrillation) had the lowest QoL indexes (p < 0.05).

In the population that was analysed, the QoL was inversely proportional to the age and the severity of the functional deficit of patients who survived a completed stroke, especially in the cardioembolic-origin subgroup, due to its being associated with more extensive cerebral infarcts.