Cerebrovascular disease in north-west India: a study of necropsy material.

The pattern of cerebrovascular disease in North-West India has been studied in a necropsy series of 362 cases over a 14 year period. One hundred and thirty eight cases of intracranial haemorrhage were found, 89 of cerebral embolism, 101 of cerebral arterial thrombosis and 34 of cerebral venous thrombosis. Nearly 37% of the affected patients were below 40 years of age. Cerebral embolism and cerebrovenous thrombosis were important causes of stroke in the young. Rheumatic heart disease and infective endocarditis formed the major causes of cerebral embolism. Cerebral venous thrombosis associated with pregnancy and puerperium was relatively more common in our series than has been reported in the West.