DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2018.v06i11.036

Pages: 4362-4364

In India, stroke is associated with a high morbidity and mortality. It is important to distinguish between cerebral hemorrhage and infarction in cases of acute stroke, since management of these two disorders differs substantially. Because rapid access to CT is virtually impossible for all patients with a cerebrovascular event, more so in the rural set up several investigators have attempted to formulate scoring systems determining on the basis of clinical data the relative likelihood of infarction or hemorrhage as an aid to physicians involved in stroke management. This study assessed the Greek stroke score in differentiating cerebral hemorrhage from infarction and to correlate both scores with computed tomography (CT) scan of head. The study was conducted on 70 patients admitted with acute stroke over a period of one and half year. All relevant clinical data was collected and Greek stroke score was calculated. All patients were subjected to CT scan head within 72 hours of admission. The results were correlated and sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value of the score was calculated. Of the 70 patients admitted with acute stroke CT scan head showed infarction in 62 patients and hemorrhage in 8 patients. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value(NPV) for Greek stroke score were 83.88%,100%,100% and 44.44% for infarction and 100%, 83.88%,44.44% and 100% for hemorrhage respectively. CT scan head is an accurate, safe and noninvasive procedure for differentiating between cerebral hemorrhage and infarction. However, when CT scan facilities are not available, we suggest Greek stroke score as a simple method of screening patients for intracerebral hemorrhage given the high sensitivity and specificity of the scoring system for detection of ICH (Intracerebral hemorrhage).