Reflecting the multiethnic makeup of NOMAS, about 32 percent of the study group was black, 49 percent was Hispanic, and 17 percent was white. Stroke risk factors, such as high blood pressure, smoking and atrial fibrillation (rapid, irregular heartbeat), were more common in one or more ethnic groups of stroke patients compared to controls, and diabetes was more common in stroke patients across all ethnic/race groups.
Using echocardiography, researchers documented LVD in 24.1 percent of stroke patients and 4.9 percent of the control group.
Regardless of its severity, LVD was significantly more common in stroke patients than in controls. It was moderate-severe in 13.3 percent of stroke patients compared to 2.4 percent of controls; and it was mild in 10.7 percent of stroke patients versus 2.4 percent of the controls. After controlling for the influence of other stroke risk factors, LVD remained a statistically significant predictor of increased stroke risk.
LVD had a significant effect on stroke risk across the entire spectrum of patients. LVD of any degree increased the odds of stroke more than three-fold in men, almost five-fold in women, over three-fold in patients under age 70, and almost five-fold in patients 70 and older. The link was also detected in all ethnicities.
Di Tullio and his co-authors said results appear to "contradict the belief that stroke risk parallels the severity of LVD, and indicates that a significantly increased risk of stroke should be considered to be present even in the much larger fraction of patients with mildly decreased [LV function]."
The finding that even mild LVD increases stroke risk poses a problem because the condition often causes no clear symptoms and is diagnosed incidentally durin
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Contact: Bridgette McNeill
bridgette.mcneill@heart.org
214-706-1396
American Heart Association
1-Jun-2006