Nontraditional Risk Factors for Ischemic Stroke: An Update

Stroke, 29 October 2015

Although it is encouraging that during the past decade there has been a notable decline in the incidence of stroke in several countries around the world, further reductions in stroke occurrence will require even better treatment of conventional risk factors, as well as the identification and treatment of nontraditional risk factors. Hypertension, diabetes mellitus, hypercholesterolemia, cigarette smoking, atrial fibrillation, and carotid stenosis are definite causal risk factors because randomized controlled trials showed that treating them reduced the incidence of ischemic stroke/transient ischemic attack (TIA) or because epidemiological studies have shown that they are prospectively and independently associated with incident risk of stroke. Several risk models and risk calculators are available for stroke. However, they include only a few traditional risk factors, and not all ischemic strokes are explained by these factors. About 60% to 80% of all ischemic strokes can be attributed to these factors. Adding more factors may improve the predictive values of the risk models for stroke, and controlling nontraditional risk factors may further reduce stroke risks. Read more.