Stroke Risk
Following on the heels of the SPRINT study, which showed that maintaining systolic blood pressure at a lower than currently recommended level will impact cardiovascular and kidney diseases, we present these succinct summaries of recent studies on other factors that may affect stroke risk.
METABOLIC SYNDROME AND DIABETES IN STROKE RECURRENCE
Zhu S, McClure LA, Lau H, et al. Recurrent vascular events in lacunar stroke patients with metabolic syndrome and/or diabetes. Neurology. 2015 Aug 21. [Epub ahead of print]
Metabolic syndrome (METS) and diabetes mellitus (DM) were significant comorbid conditions in lacunar stroke patients, and they were associated with stroke recurrence, according to a study of 3,020 patients with lacunar strokes. Researchers found:
• 25% of patients had METS only, 6% had DM only, 32% had both conditions, and 37% had neither.
• Over a median 3.8 years of follow-up, there were 274 recurrent strokes and 74 myocardial infarctions (MIs).
• Among 240 recurrent ischemic strokes, 56% were lacunar.
• The hazard ratios for any recurrent stroke (HR, 1.7) or lacunar stroke (HR, 2.4) were significantly higher for those with concurrent METS and DM than for those who had neither.
• Risk for incident MI was higher in patients with DM (HR, 2.8) or concurrent DM and METS (HR, 2.6).
