Serum D – Dimer levels as a screening test in acute hemorrhagic stroke

Background: Stroke is sudden reduction in blood supply to the brain resulting in loss of its functions. Hemorrhagic stroke, though a less common type of stroke, is associated with greater morbidity and mortality, and its rapid diagnosis requires early neuroimaging techniques like CT scan brain or MRI brain. Since in Pakistan health care facilities are limited with neuroimaging inaccessible in certain areas, therefore, the main objective of this study was to find out the frequency of raised serum D- dimer levels in patients of hemorrhagic stroke, as plasma d-dimer level is an easily available and cost effective parameter, and may be used to as a screening tool. Methods: By nonprobability convenience sampling, all patients with hemorrhagic stroke admitted in the medical unit of Ayub teaching hospitals were included in the study. The study was conducted from 13th March 2015 to 12th March 2016. The diagnosis of hemorrhagic stroke was done on CT scan brain and plasma D-Dimer levels were send. Data was collected on specific proforma and was put to SPSS version 20. Results: The study group comprised of 243 patients with hemorrhagic stroke as per operational definition. The mean age of the patients was 56.27 ± 8.85. Minimum age was 40 years and maximum age was 78 years. There were 147 (60.5%) males and 96 (39.5%) females. D-dimer levels were found high in 50 (61.7%) patients in the entire study groups. Conclusion: The Frequency of serum D-dimer levels was found to be 61.7%. Therefore, even though a positive correlation was found, D-dimer assay alone is inadequate for screening of patients with suspected hemorrhagic stroke.