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Background Early seizures have been recognized as serious complications of ischemic strokes where the data are limited among Lebanese patients. This study aimed to assess the incidence and risk factors of early seizures postischemic stroke and to determine the effect of early seizures on functional outcome among Lebanese stroke patients. Methods This was a retrospective observational study conducted between January 2017 and March 2020 on patients with acute ischemic strokes at two tertiary hospitals in Lebanon. Data were collected from patients’ medical records at each site through a well‐designed data collection sheet. Early seizures were defined as seizures occurring within 7 days after acute stroke. Functional outcome was assessed at discharge, according to modified Rankin scale (mRS). Results Of 140 enrolled patients, early seizure developed in 12 patients (8.6%) with mean age of 68.42 ± 9.89 years and 8 (67%) were females. Independent risk factors for early seizure development were female gender and cortical involvement. Moreover, early seizure development was not associated with higher disability and mortality at hospital discharge. Conclusion The findings of the study highlight that early seizures occurred more commonly in patients with cortical involvement and female gender. In addition, early seizures did not impair functional outcome in our study, however; further studies are needed to predict patients at risk of early seizure so that appropriate prevention and treatment strategies can be implemented promptly., This is a retrospective study conducted at two Lebanese hospitals and aimed to determine the incidence, the predictive factors, and the effect of early seizures on the functional outcome of Lebanese ischemic stroke patients. Of 140 enrolled patients, ES developed in 12 patients (8.6%) with female gender and cortical involvement being the most significant predictive factors for ES. Moreover, ES development was not associated with higher disability and mortality.

Background: Non-communicable diseases, the major cause of death and disability, are susceptible to modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors. Atrial fibrillation (AF) increases the risk of stroke by 4 to 5 times and can lead to cardiovascular mortality. This study was conducted to assess the effects of different sociodemographic and socioeconomic factors on stroke development in patients with AF. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted between January and June 2018 on patients recruited from Lebanese community pharmacies. The CHA2DS2-VASc scoring system is utilized as a stroke risk stratification tool in AF patients. Participants with a previous physician diagnosis of AF, documented on medical records, were included in this study. Data was collected through a survey that was distributed to all eligible patients. Results: A total of 524 patients were enrolled in the study with a mean age (± SD) of 58.75 ± 13.59 years with hypertension (78.4%) being the most predominant disease. The results showed that obesity (Beta=0.61, p-value =0.011), retirement and unemployment compared to employment (Beta=1.44 and 1.44, p-value=0.001 respectively), divorced/widow compared to married (Beta=1.38, p-value =0.001) were significantly associated with higher CHA2DS2-VASc scores whereas high versus low socio-economic status (Beta=-1.03, p=0.009) and high school education versus primary education level (Beta=-0.49, p-value=0.025) were significantly associated with lower CHA2DS2-VASc scores. Conclusions: The study highlights that the CHA2DS2-VASc score is affected by the presence of various sociodemographic and socioeconomic characteristics in patients with AF. Thus, screening for those factors may predict the progression of cardiovascular disease and may provide an optimal intervention.

Background: Treating hypertension (HTN) in acute ischemic stroke (AIS) is controversial, since both extremely high and low blood pressures (BP) are associated with poor outcomes. Objective: This study was designed to describe and assess the frequency and the factors affecting BP overtreatment in AIS. Methods and material: This was a retrospective observational study conducted at Lebanese hospitals. BP readings at baseline and after treatment with antihypertensive drugs were recorded. Overtreatment was defined as baseline BP below 220/120 mmHg and an antihypertensive drug was prescribed. Results: A total of 141 patients were enrolled with a mean age of 76.89 years and 43.3% were males. Overtreatment rate was 62.6%, and was significantly more common in patients with a previous history of HTN and hyperlipidemia. In addition, overtreatment was significantly more common in patients treated with antihypertensive drugs, had high modified Rankin Scale score (>2) at baseline, and had high systolic BP at baseline (p

Stroke, the most common neurologic disorder and the major cause of disability and death after heart disease causing 11.8% of the total deaths worldwide, is defined as a rapidly developing clinical signs of focal disturbance of cerebral function lasting more than 24 h. This study aims to assess appropriateness of hypertension treatment in acute stroke and its adherence with the choice of medications tailored according to blood pressure readings.This was a pilot study performed in Lebanese hospitals where medical records of ischemic stroke patients were used to collect required data. The study enrolled ischemic stroke patients older than 18 years of age, admitted to intensive care unit or internal medicine department. Patients with hemorrhagic stroke were excluded. Statistical analysis was done using IBM Statistical Package for the Social Science software. The significance level is p-value ≤ 0.05.A total of 146 patients (56.8% females; mean age 76.6 ± 11.9) were included in the analysis. At baseline, patients had a mean ± standard deviation (SD) SBP of 160.6 (±31.3) and a mean DBP of 85.5. Labetalol and amlodipine were administered to patients with significantly higher baseline blood pressure (p 0.001). Change in SBP from baseline after 2 h of drug administration was significantly higher with labetalol (p = 0.028 for patients eligible for reperfusion), amlodipine (p = 0.014), and nitroglycerine (p = 0.044). As for the change in SBP after 24 h, it was significantly higher with labetalol just for patients not eligible for reperfusion (p 0.001), and amlodipine (p = 0.006). As for the change in DBP, it was significantly lower after 24 h on labetalol administration for patients not eligible for reperfusion (p 0.001) and it was also lower 2 h after administration of ramipril (p = 0.001) and 24 h (p = 0.021).This study reveals the gap between American Stroke Association guideline recommendations and the clinical practice and states the impact of such a difference on patients' health.

The study objective was to investigate the degree of physician adherence with the international guidelines for post-stroke discharge medications among Lebanese hospitals.This retrospective observational study was conducted in three Lebanese hospitals between January 2016 and December 2017.Out of 200 patients with stroke, 64.7 % were males. The difference of systolic blood pressure from baseline, 2 h, and after 24 h showed significant decrease by mean value 25.18 ± 33.45 (P0.001), and 6.44 ± 22.11 (P = 0.019) respectively. Also diastolic blood pressure showed significant decrease between baseline and after 24 h by a mean value 12.17 ± 13.63 (P value0.001). Concerning post discharge medications adherence, antithrombotic drugs showed the highest percentage (73 %) followed by antihypertensive and lipid lowering agents by comparable results (47.5 % and 40.7 % respectively). The physician adherence for the three medications together showed (30.4 %).Secondary prevention for critical diseases such as stroke appears to be inadequate in the study area.