CONTACT:
Brian Henry or Trish Moreis
AHA News Media Relations
Omni Rosen Hotel
(407) 370-6151
NR 98-4855 (Stroke/Broderick)

ORLANDO, Feb. 6 -- The number of Americans afflicted with a stroke each year is estimated to be about 500,000 -- but that number is too low, according to a report in today's Stroke: A Journal of the American Heart Association. The study, based on a population more representative of the United States than the groups traditionally investigated to gauge stroke's impact on the nation, estimated that at least 731,000 first-ever and recurrent strokes occur each year -- 40 percent more than the 500,000 figure quoted by the government.

At the time this study was conducted, researchers compared their findings against the Framingham Heart Study statistics which stated that 500,000 people have a stroke each year. According to the American Heart Association, 600,000 people have a stroke each year. This figure comes from the National Center for Health Statistics and is based on the Atherosclerotic Risk in Communities study of the National, Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI).

Previous studies have been based on the Rochester, Minn., and Framingham, Mass., populations, which are primarily white and whose socio-economic status is relatively high, says Joseph Broderick, M.D., professor of neurology, University of Cincinnati Medical Center, and first author of the Stroke journal paper, which is based on the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky population.

"Dr. Broderick, using modern sampling techniques to evaluate our changing and aging population, has shown the current magnitude of stroke is significantly higher than previously thought," says Michael D. Walker, M.D., Director of the Division of Stroke, Trauma and Neurodegenerative Diseases at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). "With the
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Contact: Brian Henry
brianh@amhrt.org
214-706-1135
American Heart Association
6-Feb-1998