Lojana TuntiyatornPichaya SaksornchaiSupoch TunlayadechanontMahidol University2018-10-192018-10-192013-09-01Journal of the Medical Association of Thailand. Vol.96, No.9 (2013), 1191-1198012522082-s2.0-84884135667https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/20.500.14594/32175Background: Stroke is a clinically syndrome of a sudden onset of neurological deficit in a vascular cause. Stroke mimics is the non-vascular disorders with stroke-like clinical symptoms. It is important to distinguish true stroke from mimics since treatment plan may differ. Objective: To determine the incidence of the stroke mimics and identify their etiologies. Material and Method: All non-contrast head CT of the patients with clinically diagnosed stroke who immediately received imaging upon arrival at the emergency department of the university hospital were retrospectively reviewed in 12-month period between January 1 and December 31, 2008. Medical records, laboratory results, MRI, and 6-month clinical follow-up records were reviewed for final diagnosis. Results: Seven hundred four patients were included in this study, including 363 (51.5%) men and 341 (48.5%) women with range in age from 24 to 108 years. Amongst those, 417 (59.2%) were ischemic stroke, 80 (11.4%) were hemorrhagic stroke, 186 (26.4%) were stroke-mimics, and 21 (3%) were inconclusive. The etiologies among stroke-mimics were metabolic/intoxication (35, 18.8%), sepsis (28, 15.0%), seizure (21, 11.3%), syncope (20, 10.8%), subdural hemorrhage (14, 7.5%), vertigo (11, 6.0%), brain tumor (10, 5.3%), central nervous system infection (5, 2.7%), others (26, 14.0%), and unspecified (16, 8.6%). Conclusion: Incidence rates and etiologies of the stroke mimics were similar to the western reports. However, the frequency of each mimic was not.Mahidol UniversityMedicineArticleSCOPUS