Traditional Eating Habits and Level of Homocysteine in the Acute First-Ever Ischaemic Stroke

Abstract

Background: Meal with high-fat content represents a common and increasing habit in general population in the Macedonia. Contribution of homocysteine and meal with high-fat content in the acute phase of first-ever ischaemic stroke (AFIS) due to the different dietary habits remains unclear. Aim: Our aims/hypothesis was comparison of serum total homocysteine (tHcy) level and dietary habits in patients with AFIS and in controls due to non-consuming (non-users) or consuming (users) meat with high content of fats that can be regarded as traditional eating habits influenced by religion dietary restrictions from Lower Pollog populations. Materials and Methods: From initially 847 patients hospitalized from September 2008 to August 2010in neurology department, only 231 patients with diagnostic entity-AFIS and 194 healthy subjects were evaluated in this study. Serum tHcy was measured on admission and dietary history was noted. Results: In the overall pooled estimate, for all included study participants, serum tHcy level in the acute phase of disease and frequency of users are similar in patient with AFIS and in controls, but non-users mostly was dispose to AFIS and hyperhomocysteinemia. Conclusion: Meat with high-fat content is very often combined with tHcy-increasing effects at users. Because the regression coefficient of linear regression model with users as variable, adjusting for age, gender and serum tHcy of patients with AFIS was not confirmed the statistical significance of previous pretesting factors by cross tabulation model our research could not confirm that hyperhomocisteinemia and meat with high-fat content are the only reason for cause of AFIS.