silent brain infarction in stroke patients: a pilot double-center study

silent brain infarcts (sbi) are associated with an increased risk of subsequent stroke. sbi are incidentally revealed by ct or mri executed in stroke patients. a prospective study was undertaken involving 200 consecutive patients aged >45 years with brain infarct admitted in university of alberta hospital, canada (100 patients) and valie-asr hospital, iran (100 patients) in 2003. patients were divided in age groups aged <65 and >65. all of the patients underwent brain ct. a stroke neurologist with knowledge of stroke history subsequently reviewed the scans and diagnosed sbi. the relations of race, gender and age groups with sbi were analyzed with chi-square and fisher exact tests. sbr were present in 26.9% of patients aged <65 and 48.6% of patients aged >65. canadian patients were significantly more preponderant to sbi in age group> 65 (p= 0.013). the mean age of canadian patients was significantly higher than persians (p<0.001). within a total of 200 patients the female gender was significantly more preponderant to sbr (p= 0.02) which was not related to age and race groups. small vessel territory infarct was present in 87 % of our patients with sbi. sbr are cornmon in stroke patients. the frequency of sbi is higher in female gender and the elderly.