Introduction: The primary goal of this study was to compare serum homocysteine levels in acute ischemic strokes caused by extracranial atherosclerotic stenosis (ECAS) and intracranial atherosclerotic stenosis (ICAS)groups in order to see if there was a link between elevated serum homocysteine levels and ICAS. Methodology: The present study was a cross-sectional study done by the department of neurology at a tertiary level hospital in Mumbai. Various clinical, radiological & laboratory parameters including serum Homocysteine were compared between patients with ECAS and ICAS stroke. Results: The study enrolled a total of 150 patients, with 110 in the ECAS group and 40 in the ICAS group. We observed that mean serum Homocysteine levels were 2.42 µg/ml in the ECAS group and 4.88 µg/ml in the ICAS group (p=0.01). High serum Homocysteine levels were more common in the ICAS group than in the ECAS group (55 percent versus 33.6 percent, p = 0.01). The lipid profile was found to be similar in the two study groups, except for low HDL, which was observed in 70 (64%) of the ECAS patients as compared to 17 (43%) of the ICAS (p-value < 0.05). There was no statistical difference in the caparison of demographic and other risk factor profiles between ECAS and ICAS patients. Conclusions: High serum Homocysteine levels were found to be more common in the ICAS group than in the ECAS group.
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