Stroke
Psychological Distress, Not Depression, Linked to Increased Risk of Stroke
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Psychological distress, but not depression, may increase the risk of stroke, according to a study published in the March 4, 2008, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Previous studies have shown that stroke often leads to depression, but the evidence was mixed as to whether depression could lead to stroke.
“Stroke is among the leading causes of long-term disability and death worldwide,” said study author Paul Surtees, PhD, of the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. “Understanding the mechanisms by which overall emotional health may increase stroke risk may inform stroke prevention and help identify those at increased stroke risk.”
Study finds degenerative eye disease raises stroke risk
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People with age-related macular degeneration, a leading cause of severe vision loss, have double the usual risk of dying from a heart attack or stroke, Australian researchers reported on Thursday.
They found that for people under the age of 75 when the study began, those who developed early age-related macular degeneration had twice the risk of dying from a heart attack or stroke within the next decade.
People with the late stage of the incurable disease at the start of the study had five times the risk of dying from a heart attack, and 10 times the risk of dying from a stroke, Paul Mitchell of the Centre for Vision Research at the University of Sydney and colleagues found.
Clot removal device improves stroke outcome
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A device that suctions out blood clots in the brain causing acute stroke proved safe and effective and was associated with improved neurological outcome on all measures, even when used eight hours after the onset of the stroke, according to results of a study.
The mechanical device, known as the Penumbra System and marketed by Penumbra, Inc., of San Leandro, California, helped improve blood flow to the brain in 82 percent of 125 patients studied.
A favorable neurological outcome at 30 days occurred in roughly 42 percent of patients.
Rise in midlife stroke in women linked to obesity
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The rapidly rising incidence of stroke among Americans is primarily due to the increasing number of middle-aged women who are having strokes. The increasing incidence is also associated with abdominal obesity, investigators told attendees here at the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference 2008.
“The incidence of stroke is two-times higher in women than men between the ages of 35 and 54,” announced Dr. Amytis Towfighi of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.
Towfighi and colleagues analyzed data from the National Health and Nutrition Surveys (NHANES) collected between 1988 and1994 that included 5,112 participants, as well as NHANES data collected between 1999 and 2004 that included 4,594 participants.
Stroke risk factors may signal faster cognitive decline in elderly
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Older Americans with the highest risk of stroke, but those who have never suffered a stroke, also have the highest rate of cognitive decline, researchers reported at the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference 2008.
“Everyone knows that people lose some cognitive function as they age,” said George Howard, Dr.P.H., the principal investigator of the ongoing study. “We found that people at high risk of stroke, decline twice as fast as those persons considered at low-risk.”
Howard and his colleagues correlated the stroke risks of 17,000-plus study participants with the results from a simple cognitive test and found the stroke risk scores tracked closely with the average age-, race-, and gender-adjusted annual cognitive decline.
Sleep apnea dangerous for stroke patients
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Sleep apnea, in which breathing briefly ceases or becomes blocked numerous times during the night, is a risk factor for early death in people who have had a stroke, according to a new study.
“Sleep apnea occurs frequently among patients with stroke, but it is still unknown whether a diagnosis of sleep apnea is an independent risk factor for mortality,” Dr. Karl A. Franklin, of Umea University Hospital, Sweden, and colleagues write in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
To better understand this relationship, the researchers examined long-term survival among 132 stroke patients admitted for in-hospital stroke rehabilitation between 1995 and 1997.
Music hits right note for stroke patients
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A little Beethoven is good for the brain, according to a Finnish study published on Wednesday showing that music helps people recover more quickly from strokes.
And patients who listened to a few hours of music each day soon after a stroke also improved their verbal memory and were in a better mood compared to patients who did not listen to music or used audio books, the researchers said.
Music therapy has long been used in a range of treatments but the study published in the journal Brain is the first to show the effect in people, they added.
High vitamin C level linked to decreased stroke risk
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A person’s level of vitamin C may predict his or her likelihood of having a stroke, according to a long-term study of some 20,000 middle-aged and older residents of Norfolk, United Kingdom.
During an average follow-up of 9.5 years, 448 strokes occurred in the study population. Researchers found that people with the highest vitamin C concentration at the start of the study had a 42 percent lower risk of stroke over 10 years compared to those with the lowest levels of vitamin C.
The protective effect of vitamin C against stroke remained after accounting for factors that could affect the risk, such as age, sex, smoking, alcohol intake, body mass index, blood pressure, cholesterol, physical activity, diabetes, prior heart attack, supplement use, and social class.
Heart and stroke death rates steadily decline; risks still too high
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In an appropriate prelude to American Heart Month, which is just ahead in February, new mortality data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that, since 1999, coronary heart disease and stroke age-adjusted death rates are down by 25.8 percent and 24.4 percent, respectively. This means that the American Heart Association’s 2010 strategic goal for reducing deaths from coronary heart disease has been achieved, and for stroke nearly achieved – ahead of time. However, potential problems loom for the future, as all of the major risk factors for these leading causes of death are still too high and several are actually on the rise. If this trend continues, death rates could begin to rise again in years ahead.
In 1999, the American Heart Association set a strategic goal of reducing the death rates from coronary heart disease and stroke, and reducing the risk factors for these diseases by 25 percent by 2010. The new CDC data notes early success in meeting the coronary heart disease death rate goal, and shows that success is near for the 25 percent reduction in stroke. However, American Heart Association president Dan Jones, M.D., said the victory could be short-lived if the risk factors that lead to heart disease and stroke are not also reduced.
“This progress in the reduction of death rates is a landmark achievement, and has come about as a result of tremendous efforts from many partners in research, healthcare, government, business and communities,” Jones said.
Cholesterol disturbances impair stroke recovery
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New research suggests that people are at an increased risk of memory problems and greater disability after stroke if they have low levels of “good” HDL cholesterol and high levels of homocysteine, an amino acid acquired mostly from eating meat.
“These findings show metabolic stress plays a significant role in stroke recovery,” lead author Dr. George C. Newman, from the Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia, said in a statement.
Mini-stroke: warning that major stroke is near
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Mini-strokes lead to a major stroke within one week in 1 out of 20 people and should be treated as a medical emergency, British doctors said on Sunday.
They said patients who are immediately treated for small strokes, called transient ischemic attacks (TIAs) had almost no risk of a major stroke soon afterward.
Anemia may raise stroke risk in young children
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Iron-deficiency anemia is 10 times more common among young children who have suffered a stroke than among their peers who have not had a stroke, new research indicates.
Iron-deficiency anemia is known to occur in up to 8 percent of children between 1 and 3 years of age. A deficiency of iron in the diet is the most frequent cause of this anemia.
New treatment for stroke works up to a day after symptoms start
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People treated with the drug minocycline within six to 24 hours after a stroke had significantly fewer disabilities, according to a study published in the October 2, 2007, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Researchers say minocycline may be an alternative treatment for stroke because current treatments only work during the first few hours after the onset of symptoms, and many people don’t get to the hospital in time to be treated.
For the study, 152 men and women received either an oral dose of minocycline or placebo for five days following stroke. People who received minocycline were treated an average of 13 hours after stroke compared to 12 hours for the placebo group. Researchers followed both groups for three months.
Dutch stroke study urges greater anticoagulant use
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Dutch doctors called on Sunday for greater use of oral anticoagulants to prevent strokes in people with a common heart arrhythmia.
Atrial fibrillation (AF), a heart flutter, is dangerous because blood pools in the heart, forming clots that can lead to deadly strokes.
“Whispering stroke” symptoms may damage health, lower quality of life
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People who have stroke-like symptoms but no stroke diagnosis incur physical and mental damage that significantly lowers their quality of life, according to a report in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.
In a study reviewing data from more than 21,000 people, those reporting stroke-like symptoms had functional impairment similar to that of people who had a history of transient ischemic attack (TIA), which is sometimes called “mini-stroke.” Because almost 20 percent of people older than age 45 may have vague or “whispering stroke” symptoms, the condition poses a major public health problem, said study author George Howard, Dr.P.H.
