Cerebrovascular risk factors associated with ischemic stroke in a young non-diabetic and non-hypertensive population: a retrospective case-control study

Background Globally, rates of ischemic stroke (IS) have been rising among young adults. This study was designed to identify risk factors associated with IS incidence in young adults unaffected by hypertension or diabetes. Methods This was a retrospective case-control study of early-onset IS patients without diabetes and hypertension. Control patients were matched with healthy individuals based upon sex, age (+/- 2 years), and BMI (+/- 3 kg/m(2)) at a 1:3 ratio. Sociodemographic, clinical, and risk factor-related data pertaining to these patients was collected. The association between these risk factors and IS incidence was then assessed using conditional logistic regression models. Results We recruited 60 IS patients and 180 controls with mean ages of 44.37 +/- 4.68 and 44.31 +/- 4.71 years, respectively, for this study. Relative to controls, IS patients had significantly higher total cholesterol (TG), homocysteine (HCY), white blood cell (WBC), absolute neutrophil count (ANC), systolic blood pressure (SBP), and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) levels, and significantly lower high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and triglyceride cholesterol (TC), free triiodothyronine (FT3), and free thyroxine (FT4) levels (all P < 0.05). After controlling for potential confounding factors, HCY and ANC were found to be significantly positively associated with IS incidence (OR 1.518, 95%CI 1.165-1.977, P = 0.002 and OR 2.418, 95%CI 1.061-5.511, P = 0.036, respectively), whereas HDL-C and FT3 levels were negatively correlated with IS incidence (OR 0.001, 95%CI 0.000-0.083, P = 0.003 and OR 0.053, 95%CI 0.008-0.326, P = 0.002, respectively). Conclusions In young non-diabetic and non-hypertensive patients, lower HDL-C and FT3 levels and higher HCY and ANC levels may be associated with an elevated risk of IS. Additional prospective studies of large patient cohorts will be essential to validate these findings.