Heart complications after ischemic stroke increase risk of cardiovascular events: Study
03/07/2022
A recent study has found that heart complications within one month after an ischemic stroke may put stroke survivors at an increased risk for death, heart attack or another stroke within five years. The study was published in the journal, 'Stroke'.
Ischemic stroke is the most common type of stroke which blocks blood flow to the brain. After a stroke, people often have cardiovascular complications, known as a stroke-heart syndrome.
Heart complications include acute coronary syndrome, angina (chest pain), heart rhythm issues such as atrial fibrillation, arrhythmia and ventricular fibrillation; heart attack; heart failure or Takotsubo syndrome (broken heart syndrome), a type of stress-induced temporary enlargement of a part of the heart that impacts its ability to pump effectively. These conditions increase the risk of disability or death in the short term, yet the long-term consequences for people with the stroke-heart syndrome are unknown.
"We know heart disease and stroke share similar risk factors, and there's a two-way relationship between the risk of stroke and heart disease. For example, heart conditions such as atrial fibrillation increase the risk of stroke, and stroke also increases the risk of heart conditions," said Benjamin J.R. Buckley, PhD, lead author of the study and a postdoctoral research fellow in preventive cardiology at the Liverpool Centre for Cardiov-ascular Science, the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom.
"We wanted to know how common newly diagnosed heart complications are after a stroke and, importantly, whether the stroke-heart syndrome is associated with increased risk of long-term major adverse events," he added.
Researchers analyzed the medical records of more than 365,000 adults treated for ischemic stroke at more than 50 health care sites predominantly in the United States, between 2002 and 2021. People who were diagnosed with stroke-heart complications within four weeks after a stroke were matched to an equal number of stroke survivors who did not have these heart complications within four weeks (the control group).
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