Heart and carotid artery disease in stroke patients with intermittent claudication

Much has been published on the natural history of intermittent claudication (IC), but little is known about the clinical features of stroke patients w ith IC. The purpose of this study was to examine clinical features and risk factors in stroke patients with or without IC, including heart disease and carotid artery disease. A hospital-based study was conducted of 3901 strok e patients, who were prospectively coded and entered into a computerized da tabank. Of these patients, 219 had symptoms of IC. Patients were subdivided by age into 10-year categories. There were at least 12 times more non-IC t han IC patients in each category. An age-matched random sample was obtained containing 12 non-IC cases for each IC case, resulting in 219 cases of IC and 2628 non-IC cases. The prevalence of IC in the total stroke population was 5.6%. IC prevalence increased sharply with age until about 70 years. Ca rdiac ischaemia and internal carotid artery (ICA) disease were significantl y more frequent in stroke with IC than without IC. IC patients also exhibit ed a higher prevalence of atherosclerotic disease as well as other risk fac tors such as smoking, hypercholesterolaemia, elevated haematocrit, and fami ly history of stroke. Ischaemic heart disease and ICA disease are especiall y common in stroke with IC. IC, large artery disease and stroke share simil ar risk factors. IC symptoms in stroke patients may indicate extensive gene ralized atherosclerosis.