Cerebrovascular disease in childhood: a retrospective analysis of hospital admissions in a tertiary hospital in the community of Valencia in the last ten years

Introduction: There has been increasing interest in stroke in children in the last few years. A literature review produced little information on risk factors and other clinical questions. The aim of this study is to describe the characteristics of stroke in children, mainly in order to identify the risk factors, clinical presentation and outcomes. Patients and methods: A retrospective study was conducted on patients admitted to the Hospital La Fe in Valencia between January 2000 to September 2010 with the diagnosis of ischaemic or haemorrhagic stroke. Results: A total of 76 patients were identified, of whom 44.7% had an ischaemic stroke and 55.3% had a haemorrhagic one. The average age of presentation was 6.8 years; 8.4 years for haemorrhagic strokes and 4.7 years for ischaemic strokes. Headache was the most frequent symptom of presentation. The most frequent risk factor was vascular malformations in haemorrhagic cerebral stroke, and vascular and cardiac disorders in ischaemic stroke. A study of prothrombotic factors was conducted on 34 patients, which was positive in 64.7% of them. As regards outcome, 17% of the patients died; only 3 patients had a secondary epilepsy, and 31% and 60% of the haemorrhagic and ischaemic stokes, respectively, had a hemiparesis. Conclusions: In this study we identified the principal risk factors as well as, the age of presentation, symptomatology and outcome. We would like to emphasise that the age of presentation was earlier in ischaemic strokes than in haemorrhagic ones. (C) 2011 Asociacion Espanola de Pediatria. Published by Elsevier Espana, S.L. All rights reserved.