Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Biomedical Research (India), cilt.11, sa.3, ss.303-307, 2000 (Scopus)
Besides risk and environmental factors, physiological changes in the body play an important role in stroke occurrence. Since the people fast for all day, the life style for Muslims in Ramadan month is different. The aim of this study was to determine whether there is any difference in diurnal variation of stroke in Ramadan. We analyzed retrospectively 815 stroke cases admitted to Kutahya State Hospital between October 1990 and September 1995. The number of cases treated in Ramadan was 68 (first group), and in the other months was 747 (second group) We compared onset time, frequency and subtypes of strokes, and sex and age distribution m both groups. All strokes, cerebral infarct (CI), and intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) in the first group occurred less frequently in the afternoon. Diurnal variation of all strokes and ICHs was significantly different between groups (p=0.0475 in all strokes; and p=0.0107 in ICHs). Although CIs occurred most frequently in the morning in both groups, there was no difference in diurnal variation (p=0.6057). We propose that these results come from the fact that people are relaxed in the afternoon which is 8-14 hours after eating and they usually have a heavy meal at dinner, end of fasting for a day. We observed no change in diurnal variation of CIs in Ramadan. The reason for this may be either waking up for meal before dawn does not change circadian rhythm or change in circadian rhythm has no effect on CI occurrence. However, this issue awaits further research.