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(U-WIRE) MANHATTAN, Kan. -- A recent study involving 806 men and women who have suffered ischemic strokes in the past found that women are at a higher risk to inherit the possibility of having strokes than men.
The December 2006 study found that women who had strokes were 40 percent more likely to have at least one close relative who suffered a stroke than were men.
There also is an 80-percent chance for these women to have mothers with a history of stroke -- and they too will suffer from it --
compared to men, according to the report release in the "Lancet Neurology," an international monthly journal that publishes original research articles and news in clinical neurology.
"The main implication for clinical practice is that when you consider who is at risk for stroke, it looks like family history in particular is more important in women than men, particularly if there is a family history of stroke in female relatives," said study author and director, Dr. Peter M. Rothwell, in the report.
Rothwell, the director of Stroke Prevention Research in Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford, England, has been working with stroke survivors -- more than a decade.
Among those who suffer from a stroke, the most significant type of stroke is the ischemic stroke, Rothwell said.
An ischemic stroke accounts for 83 percent of strokes, according to the American Stroke Association, a division of the American Heart Association.
"Ischemic strokes occur as a result of an obstruction within a blood vessel supplying blood to the brain," the association's Web site states.
"The underlying condition for this type of obstruction is the development of fatty deposits lining the vessel walls. This condition is called atherosclerosis."
More than 157,000 people died of stroke in 2003, according to the American Heart Association, making it the third largest cause of death in the United States. Stroke is the leading cause of long-term disability and serious illness, with more than 5 million stroke survivors today -- 2.4 million males and 3 million females.
(C) 2007 Kansas State Collegian via U-WIRE
