Features of Childhood Arterial Ischemic Stroke in China

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study was to identify the features and risk factors for arterial ischemic stroke (AIS) in children.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the initial symptoms, clinical manifestations, risk factors, neuroradiological findings, and treatment data of 75 Chinese children aged between 1 month and 14 years (median 5.7 years) who were diagnosed with AIS in our hospital between 2013 and 2018.

Results: Among these 75 cases of childhood AIS, 53 patients (70.67%) were male, and the male-to-female ratio was 2.41:1. A total of 55 cases (73.33%) had respiratory tract infection with fever. Seventy cases had lesions in the basal ganglia (46 left, 24 right). All patients were treated conservatively without thrombolytic therapy. Intravenous immunoglobulin treatment was given to children with fever and drowsiness.

Conclusion: Infection was an important risk factor for children with AIS in China. Infection and thrombophilia risk factors were more likely to occur in isolation. The stroke lesions commonly occurred in the basal ganglia region.

Keywords:

• Arterial ischemic stroke
• childhood
• cerebrovascular disease
• clinical feature
• risk factor

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to all the doctors who work in the Department of Pediatric Neurology, Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Ethical approval

All cases were seen in our hospital and did not involve any violation of ethical principles.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by The National Key Research and Development of China (No. 2016YFC1306203).