Characteristics and Outcomes of Younger Adults with Embolic Stroke of Undetermined Source (ESUS): A Retrospective Study

Table 1

Demographic and clinical characteristics of younger (≤50 years) versus older (>50 years) patients with embolic stroke of undetermined source (ESUS).

Characteristic	Older with ESUS ()	Younger with ESUS ()	-value
Age (years). Mean ± SD	63.9 ± 8.2	42.9 ± 7.7	<0.0001
Female sex. No. (%)	39 (36.11)	11 (28.2)	0.4
Medical history. No. (%)
Ischaemic heart disease	8 (7.4)	2 (5.1)	1.0
Arterial hypertension	76 (70.3)	17 (43.6)	0.004
Diabetes mellitus	62 (57.4)	14 (35.9)	0.03
Dyslipidaemia	31 (28.7)	5 (12.8)	0.05
Body mass index (BMI). Mean ± SD	27.8 ± 6.6	28.7 ± 5.9	0.2
History of smoking	15 (13.9)	8 (20.5)	0.3
Previous ischaemic stroke or TIA	24 (22.2)	5 (12.8)	0.2
Pre-stroke mRS (0–1). No. (%)^∗	95 (87.9)	37 (94.9)	0.36
NIHSS score on admission. Median (IQR)^†	5.0 (8.0)	3.0 (9.0)	0.8
Treatment with t-PA or EVT. No. (%)	5 (4.6)	4 (10.3)	0.2

ESUS, embolic stroke of undetermined source; EVT, endovascular thrombectomy; IQR, interquartile range; mRS, modified rankin scale; NIHSS, national institutes of health stroke scale; TIA, transient ischaemic attack; t-PA, tissue plasminogen activator. ^∗mRS scores range from 0 (no neurologic deficit) to 6 (death). ^†NIHSS scores range from 0 (normal function) to 42 (death), with higher scores indicating a greater neurological deficit.