Abstract

A PROSPECTIVE STUDY TO EVALUATE THE PRESCRIBING PATTERN OF DRUGS IN PATIENTS WITH ISCHEMIC STROKE AND ROLE OF MEMANTINE IN POST- STROKE APHASIA

Mathew George, Lincy Joseph and Reenu Elizabeth Varughese*

ABSTRACT

Stroke is a clinical syndrome characterized by rapidly developing clinical symptoms and / or signs of focal, and at times global (applied to patients in deep coma and those with subarachnoid hemorrhage), loss of cerebral function with symptoms lasting for more than 24 hours or leading to death, with no apparent cause other than that of vascular origin. This was a prospective observational study, which included 63 patients who were admitted in Pushpagiri Medical College Hospital. Patients prescribing pattern were evaluated from the case files and the clinical outcome were evaluated by using National Institute of Heart Stroke Scale (NIHSS) and Modified Rankin Scale (MRS). The language function of the aphasic patients were assessed by using Benson’s classification and their quality of life were evaluated by using Stroke Specific- Quality of Life (SS-QOL). Majority of the stroke patients was prescribed with Antiplatelet, Neuroprotective, Antihypertensive and Dyslipidemics. The clinical outcome, language function and quality of life of the patients were improved, indicating the effectiveness of Memantine on the language of post- stroke aphasic patients. The study confirm that post- stroke aphasia treatment with memantine 5mg and 10mg could have significant valuable effects on the neurological consequences of stroke and language function improvement of the study population.

Keywords: Stroke, Prescribing pattern, Incidence, Clinical outcome, Post-stroke aphasia, Memantine.