Associations of small vessel disease and seizures among hospitalized stroke patients
Alain Lekoubou Looti1, Paddy Ssentongo1, Jonathan Maffie1, Kunal Debroy1, Michele Kwon2, Clever Nguyen1, Benjamin Watt1, Justin Ceasar1, Nadia Dinunno1, Vivek Satyasi3, Leonardo Bonilha4, Vernon Chinchilli1
1Penn StateHealth, Hershey Medical Center, 2Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, 3University of Maryland Medical Center, 4Emory University
Objective:
To evaluate the association of white matter disease and cerebral microbleeds with seizures among hospitalized patients with ischemic stroke.
Background:
Small vessel diseases are frequent in ischemic stroke, yet unlike hemorrhagic strokes, their association with seizures has not been well characterized.
Design/Methods:
Retrospective cohort of hospitalized patients with anterior circulation ischemic stroke. The association of White matter disease and cerebral microbleeds with seizures was assessed using a logistic regression model.
Results:
Of 381 patients, 17 developed seizures. Compared with patients without CMBs, those with CMBs had four-fold higher odds of seizures (adjusted OR: 4.36, 95% 1.23-15.34, p=0.02). White matter disease burden was not associated with seizures.
Conclusions:
In this cohort of hospitalized patients with anterior circulation ischemic stroke, the presence of 4 or more CMBs increased the risk of seizures. The long-term risk of seizures associated with CMBs and other markers of small vessel disease is warranted.