Declining memory may predict risk of stroke
Knowing risk factors for a stroke can help determine which individuals would benefit from a prescription to buy Canadian Plavix.
Knowing risk factors for a stroke can help determine which individuals would benefit from a prescription to buy Canadian Plavix. Researchers from the Harvard University School of Public Health recently observed an association between the severity of memory loss and the likelihood of a fatal stroke in the future.
The team of scientists conducted a 10-year experiment on more than 11,800 individuals over the age of 50 who never had a stroke. Every two years, the subjects underwent word-recall tests to assess their memory function.
During the study period, there were more than 1,800 strokes and 364 subjects who died before their next memory test. On average, the memory scores for people who did not have a stroke during the study dropped 0.078 points a year. By comparison, those who had a stroke but survived scored 0.137 points lower annually, while those who died from the event dropped .205 points a year.
Subjects who survived their stroke had worse memory function than healthy subjects even before the event took place, as presented at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2012.
"People who die after stroke may have worse underlying disease prior to stroke. This suggests early disease is accumulating and that something is happening to these people before they are diagnosed with clinical stroke," said researcher M. Maria Glymour, SD.
Further studies are needed to determine if and how memory loss makes stroke patients more vulnerable, and whether the effects of stroke on memory are the same across different demographics.
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