Risk of stroke intensifies when sibling is victim too
Potential stroke victims have up to a 60% greater chance of succumbing to a sudden blockage or rupture of a blood vessel when their siblings had a stroke as well, research from Sweden shows. The risk of stroke for patients aged 55 or younger is two times higher if their siblings had a stroke at 55 or younger. The study's findings are presented in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Genetics. Researchers from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden suggest patients should inform their physicians if any of their siblings had a stroke. It is also important, they say, to modify bad habits that contribute to stroke, namely maintaining unhealthy eating habits, being inactive and having high blood pressure. The results are part of a large study that investigated the combined influence of age, gender and sibling history on stroke risk. Ischemic strokes, triggered by blood vessel blockage that stops blood from reaching a person's brain, are the most common type of stroke, with hundreds of thousands of people affected every year. They evaluated hospital discharge and cause of death records in almost 31,000 people who had a sibling with a stroke, and almost 153,000 adults of a similar age with no history of a sibling having a stroke. Senior author Dr Erik Ingelsson from the Karolinska Institutet says the team identified a near two-fold risk of suffering a stroke if the patient had a sibling who had a stroke when they were 55 years old or younger. 'Health professionals should pay as much attention to a family history of stroke in siblings as in parents, and make patients aware that a genetic predisposition exists,' Dr Ingelsson says. 'The gender of either sibling did not influence the stroke risk.' The health records of patients from 1987 to 2007 were used in the study. The researchers found that for each stroke diagnosed, the patient's sibling had a stroke during the remainder of the study period. They also observed that 94% of ischemic strokes are more likely to occur at age 55 or younger in siblings of affected patients whose stroke occurred at 55 or younger, 64% more likely in full siblings of affected patients, and 61% more likely in any siblings of affected patients. 'The increased familial risk may not solely be due to genetics,' Dr Ingelsson points out. 'If your sibling has had a stroke, it should motivate you to take more preventive actions and to pay more attention to lifestyle habits such as diet, exercise and blood pressure control.' It should be noted that the team could not establish whether familial influence increased the risk of stroke, either directly or via genetic and environmental influences. 'The study is limited by the lack of information on subtypes of ischemic stroke that may carry different inherited risks,' the authors say.For more information, please visit: Circulation: Cardiovascular Genetics: http://circgenetics.ahajournals.org/(opens in new window) Karolinska Institutet: http://ki.se/(opens in new window)
Countries
Sweden