A Second Stroke Doubles Mortality

Having a second stroke after surviving the first one more than doubles a person's risk of dying in the following two years, a new study finds.

Researchers from the University of Michigan Medical School (U-M, Ann Arbor, USA) followed 1,345 people who had their first stroke between 2000 and 2004, 53% of whom were Mexican-Americans, and determined the frequency of recurrence through the end of 2004. They recorded details about their demographics, other health problems, and whether or not they had had another stroke. Next, they compared the recurrent stroke patients with the other stroke survivors who had not had a second stroke. In all the study includes data from 124 recurrent stroke patients and 417 deaths among 1,311 stroke survivors for whom complete data were available.

When the researchers looked at the risk of dying from any cause during the study period, the impact of having a second stroke was dramatic. Stroke survivors who suffered a second stroke were 2.67 times more likely to die than stroke survivors who did not have a second stroke in the study period. The increased risk from recurrent stroke was present even after the researchers corrected for other health factors, age, and gender. Mexican-American ethnicity was a strong factor in a person's risk of a second stroke. The study was published in August 2006 edition of the Annals of Neurology

"This finding completes a picture that has been taking shape through research on ethnic differences in stroke,” said lead author Lynda Lisabeth, Ph.D, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan. "We know that Mexican-Americans have a higher overall risk of stroke, tend to have strokes starting at younger ages, and generally have a better chance of surviving their first stroke, compared with non-Hispanic whites. Now, by finding this higher rate of recurrence, we have a better idea of the overall burden of stroke in this population.”



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