Background
: Stroke is the second common cause of death in Korea. It may cause severe and irreversible damages to human health. Risk factors and prevention of stroke have been interested by many physicians and patients. There are many studies about rick factors of stroke in the world. but there are no reliable epidemiologic studies abut risk factors of stroke in Korea. So this study was designed to investigate the risk factors of cerebral infarction. Especially, we focused on the lipid profile in cerebral infarction.

Methods : 102 cases were selected among patients who confirmend by Brain CT of MRI as cerebral infarction at one University Hospital and one City Hospital. Age-sex matched 102 patients, who were not diagnosed as stroke by CT or MRI, were selected as a contral group. Information was taken by charts review. Adjusted odds ratios for individual risk factors were calculated by multiple logistics regression anaysis.

Results : Average total cholesterol level was 216.1mg/dl in the case group and 190.7mg/dl in the control group. A patient who had cerebral infarction had almost 2.5 times more likely to have hypercho-lesterolemia(cholesterol>200mg/dl) than a patient who did not have a stroke(adjusted odds ratio is 2.48, 95% confidence interval, CI : 1.27~4.8, p<0.01). HDL-cholesterol average was 39.4mg/dl in the case group and 46.6mg/dl in the control group. A patient who had cerebral infarction had almost 0.5 times more likely to have not hypoHDL-cholesterolemia(HDL-cholesterol<35mg/dl in male, HDL-cholesterol<45mg/dl in female) than a patient who did not have a stroke(adjusted odds ratio is 0.46, 95% CI:0.23~0.92, p<0.05). LDL-cholesterol average was 147.8mg/dl in the case group and 114.5mg/dl in the control group. A patient who had cerebral infarction had almost 3.1 times more likely to hane hyperLDL-cholesterolemia(cholesterol>130mg/dl) than a patient who did not have a stroke(adjusted odds ratio is 3.07, 95% CI:1.59~5.96, p<0.01). Triglyceride average was 144.4mg/dl in the case group and 149.0mg/dl in the control group. There was not statistically significant diference between two groups. In concerning with other risk factors, obesity was not statistically significant risk factor. Hypertension and Diabetes Mellitus were statistically significant(two p-value are all less than 0.01). Its adjusted odds ratio were 5.24(95% CI:2.8~10.22) and 5.32(95% CI:2.14~13.21)

Conclusion : Hypercholesterolemia, HypoHDL-cholesterolemia, hyperLDL-cholesterolemia, Hyper-tension, and Diabets Mellitus were significant risk factors for cerebral infaction. But Triglyceride and Obesity were not statistically signficant risk factors.