Paper Title
Risk Factors, Clinical Features, Diagnosis and Treatment Strategies of Stroke: A Cross-Sectional Study In A Tertiary Care Hospital of Bangladesh

Abstract
Stroke, a cerebrovascular incident characterized by interrupted or reduced blood supply to the brain. The objective of this study was to carry out across-sectional study in a tertiary care neurology and neurosurgeryhospital ofBangladesh to collectdata regarding risk factors, clinical features, diagnosis and treatment strategies of stroke among patients who were admitted in the hospital during the period of the study.A case report form (CRF)comprised of various questions were administered to patients to collect data and obtained data were analyzed by GraphPad Prism version 7.In total, 200 patients’ data were collected where patients from rural areas (66.5%) were in dominant position. Stroke prevalence was significantly higher in men (57.5%) compared to women (42.5%) and most dominating age group was 61-70. Only 17% patients were presented to physicians within one hour of stroke onset;although in 41.5% cases, symptoms’ recognizers were patients or patients’ family member(s). Hemorrhagic stroke was discovered in 74.5% cases; where ischemic stroke was observedin 24% cases and both ischemic and hemorrhagic strokewere observed in 1.5% cases. Hypertension(63.5%)was found as the dominant risk factorandvomiting (53%) was foundas a topmost symptom. Common forms of diagnosis were computed tomography (CT) scan (100%), serum electrolyte test (94%)and less frequently used diagnosis tests were serum thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) test (2.5%), serum free triiodothyronine (FT3) and serum free thyroxine (FT4) test (2.5%). Majority of the patients were prescribed withanti-hypertensive agents (90%) and anti-bacterial drugs (89%). Infrequently prescribed medications were anti-platelet drugs (21%) and cholesterol lowering agents (27%). Stroke is a serious public health threat for developing countries like Bangladesh. Not only primary preventive strategies to alleviate burden of stroke but also primary knowledge about stroketo recognize stroke symptomsand presenting patient to physician without making any delay are required in an urgent manner. Keywords - Hemorrhagic stroke, CRF, CT scan, Hypertension, Anti-bacterial drugs, Bangladesh