Women's risk of stroke death elevated.(Brief Article)

2002 AUG 8 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Elevated cholesterol is a risk factor for stroke death in younger women, particularly African American women with no history of cardiovascular disease, according to a large, long-term analysis in the July 2002 issue of Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.

"Most prior research has had too few women, especially minority women, to firmly establish the relationship between cholesterol and stroke mortality," said Lori Mosca, MD, PhD, senior author and associate professor of medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons in New York City.

The results also confirmed the importance of the traditional risk factors for stroke death, including high blood pressure and diabetes. Early studies of risk factors for stroke death showed inconsistent associations between cholesterol and stroke death. Recently, studies in patients with known cardiovascular disease have shown that treatment with cholesterol-lowering drugs reduced the risk of stroke death. Reflecting the recent findings, the American Heart Association last year cited cholesterol as a stroke risk factor in a scientific statement on stroke prevention.

Researchers followed participants in eight large, long-term prospective studies that formed The Women's Pooling Project (WPP). They evaluated stroke risk factors in 24,343 women with no history of heart attack, coronary chest pain, or stroke. They were 30-97 years old (average 52) at the time of enrollment, with 17.4% African Americans, and 4.9% Hispanic. The women were followed for a total of 339,215 patient-years. Some patients were followed for 20 years or longer.

A total of 568 stroke-related deaths occurred during follow-up, representing about 10% of all deaths. Consistent with other stroke studies, researchers found that more than 80% of the stroke deaths (461) were associated with strokes caused by clots or narrowing of vessels that carry blood to the brain. Most of the remaining deaths involved strokes caused by bleeding in the brain.

For the entire study population, cholesterol levels averaged about 225 mg/dL. Researchers divided the population into five groups according to total cholesterol levels. Average total cholesterol levels for the five groups ranged from a low of about 162 mg/dL to a high of 290 mg/dL. The entire population also was analyzed by age, grouping 14,305 women who were younger than 55 at enrollment and 10,038 who were 55 and older. The average age of the under-55 group was 44.3 years old and the average age of the 55 and older group was 62.7 years old.

Cholesterol proved to be a significant risk factor ...