Family History and Functional Outcome in Korean Stroke Patients: A Preliminary Study

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association of family history of stroke with functional outcomes in stroke patients in Korea. METHODS: A case-control study was conducted. A total of 170 patients who were admitted to a rehabilitation unit were included. Risk factors for stroke such as age, sex, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, atrial fibrillation, smoking, high blood cholesterol and homocysteine level, obesity, and family history of stroke were taken into account. Stroke subtypes were the following: large vessel infarct, small vessel infarct, embolic infarct, subarachnoid hemorrhage, and intracranial hemorrhage. Stroke severity as assessed with the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS), functional outcomes using the Korean version of the Modified Barthel index (K-MBI), Functional Independence Measurement (FIM), and cognitive function using the Korean version of Mini-Mental State Examination (K-MMSE) were assessed at admission and discharge. RESULTS: Subjects with a family history of stroke were more likely to have an ischemic stroke (90.7%) than were those without a family history (70.9%). The K-MBI, FIM, NIHSS, and K-MMSE scores did not show significant differences between patients with or without family history. CONCLUSION: Family history of stroke was significantly associated with ischemic stroke, but not with functional outcomes. Other prognostic factors of stroke were not distributed differently between patients included in this study with or without a family history of stroke.