Prevalence and correlates of carotid artery stenosis in a cohort of Sri Lankan ischaemic stroke patients

BACKGROUND: Large artery atherosclerotic disease is an important cause of stroke, accounting for 15–46% of ischaemic strokes in population-based studies. Therefore, current guidelines from west recommend urgent carotid imaging in all ischaemic strokes or transient ischaemic attacks and referral for carotid endarterectomy. However, the clinical features and epidemiology of stroke in Asians are different from those in Caucasians and therefore the applicability of these recommendations to Asians is controversial. Data on the prevalence of carotid artery stenosis (CAS) among South Asian stroke patients is limited. Therefore, we sought to determine the prevalence and associated factors of significant CAS in a cohort of Sri Lankan patients with ischaemic stroke. METHODS: We prospectively studied all ischaemic stroke patients who underwent carotid doppler ultrasonography admitted to the stroke unit of a Sri Lankan tertiary care hospital over 5 years. We defined carotid stenosis as low (< 50%), moderate (50–69%) or severe (70–99%) or total-occlusion (100%) by North American Symptomatic Trial Collaborators (NASCET) criteria. We identified the factors associated with CAS ≥ 50% and ≥ 70% by stepwise multiple logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: A total of 550 ischaemic stroke patients (326 (59.3%) male, mean age was 58.9 ± 10.2 years) had carotid doppler ultrasonography. Of them, 528 (96.0%) had low-grade, 12 (2.2%) moderate and 7 (1.3%) severe stenosis and 3 (0.5%) had total occlusion. On multivariate logistic regression, age was associated with CAS ≥ 50% (OR 1.12, p = 0.001) and CAS ≥ 70% (OR 1.14, p = 0.016), but none of the other vascular risk factors studied (sex, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, smoking, past history of TIA, stroke or ischemic heart disease) showed significant associations. CONCLUSIONS: Carotid stenosis is a minor cause of ischemic stroke in Sri Lankans compared to western populations with only 4.0% having CAS ≥ 50 and 3.5% eligible for carotid endarterectomy. Our findings have implications for the management of acute strokes in Sri Lanka.