Objective: In patients with ischemic stroke, we studied the markers and risk factors of cerebral small vessel disease at a tertiary care hospital.
Methods: An observational study was conducted in patients with ischemic stroke. MRI based markers of small vessel disease of brain White matter hyper intensity, Microbleed, Lacunae and Perivascular spaces were determined by visual analysis by STRIVE criteria and grouped to obtain SVD score which was compared to risk factors in the patients.
Results: In 142 patients studied during October 2019 to march 2020 with ischemic stroke, large vessel occlusion was found in 26.4%, cardio embolic in 27.4% and other etiology in 46.2% of patients. Average age of the group was 63 years with male predominance (63.3%), hypertension was most common risk factor (71.1%), followed by diabetes mellitus (38.7%), old cerebrovascular and cardiovascular disease was found in 32.4% and 28.8% of patients respectively. Uncontrolled Hba1c was found in 37.3%, low HDL was seen in 56.3% and raised LDL levels were seen in 47.8%.SVD score ‘0’ was seen in 35.9% and remaining 64.1% at least one markers of severe SVD score. There was no association of stroke subtypes with severity of cSVD score (p-value >0.05). Conclusion: cerebral Small vessel disease is significant risk factor in not only lacunar stroke, but also in large vessel occlusion and cardio embolic stroke. It may confound the risk with other traditional risk factors. Its estimation may help in proper stratification, prognostication and treatment of cSVD.