American Heart Association

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So far gkaur has created 13 entries.

Reducing Recurrent Strokes with Secondary Risk-Factor Modification — Reflections from Temporal Trends in a Population-Based Study

Gurmeen Kaur, MBBS
@kaurgurmeen

Bergström L, Irewall AL, Söderström L, Ögren J, Laurell K, Mooe T. One-Year Incidence, Time Trends, and Predictors of Recurrent Ischemic Stroke in Sweden From 1998 to 2010: An Observational Study. Stroke. 2017

The risk of recurrent stroke has been on a decline as per estimates from different countries, including Italy, Taiwan and the “Western world.” Rikstroke is the Swedish Stroke Register where all Swedish hospital admissions because of stroke are recorded. The authors describe an excellent longitudinal study design where patients with ischemic strokes were followed up from 1998 to 2009. From the year 1998, all Swedish hospitals and rehab centers report their admissions to the Rikstroke registry, which had an astounding 85% coverage in the year 2009.

The recurrence of ischemic stroke events was calculated by amalgamating the Rikstroke registry with the Swedish National Inpatient Register (IPR), which contains data about diagnoses and dates of discharge from hospitalizations in Sweden.

By |November 6th, 2017|clinical, epidemiology and genetics|Comments Off on Reducing Recurrent Strokes with Secondary Risk-Factor Modification — Reflections from Temporal Trends in a Population-Based Study
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Understanding Changing Temporal Trends in Dementia — Does Improving Vascular Health Have a Role?

Gurmeen Kaur, MBBS
@kaurgurmeen

Pase MP, Satizabal C, Seshadri S. Role of Improved Vascular Health in the Declining Incidence of Dementia. Stroke. 2017

It is projected that 13.8 million Americans will have dementia by the year 2050, making it a major public health epidemic. While the overall prevalence is on a rise, every individual’s chance of developing dementia per year is decreasing. The authors used the Framingham Heart Study (FHS) to demonstrate nearly a 20% decrease in developing dementia by a specific age over the past 30 years and have explored the temporal trends of this change.

Improved cardiovascular health and better management of stroke and vascular risk factors may be the reason for this observed decrease. Vascular risk factors have also been implicated in the pathophysiology of both vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s type dementia. A meta-analysis of 14,730 adults, including 862 with a history of stroke and 13,868 controls, demonstrated that a history of stroke increased the risk of AD dementia by 59%. Leukoariosis or increased burden of small vessel disease suggests silent ischemia. Many large databases show that the incidence of strokes is decreasing, which may be a contributing factor to decreased rates of dementia.

By |September 5th, 2017|epidemiology and genetics|Comments Off on Understanding Changing Temporal Trends in Dementia — Does Improving Vascular Health Have a Role?
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Stroke Risk Stratification in Non-Valvular Atrial Fibrillation — Validating CHA2DS2-VASc in an Asian Cohort

Gurmeen Kaur, MBBS
@kaurgurmeen

Kim T, Yang P, Uhm J, Kim J, Pak H, Lee M, et al. CHA2DS2-VASc Score (Congestive Heart Failure, Hypertension, Age ≥75 [Doubled], Diabetes Mellitus, Prior Stroke or Transient Ischemic Attack [Doubled], Vascular Disease, Age 65–74, Female) for Stroke in Asian Patients With Atrial Fibrillation: A Korean Nationwide Sample Cohort Study. Stroke. 2017

Non-valvular atrial fibrillation (AF) is a cause of at least 15-20% of strokes in the U.S., with a 5-times increased risk when compared to patients with no atrial fibrillation. The safety, efficacy and availability of oral anticoagulants, in addition to Vitamin K antagonists like warfarin, have made strokes secondary to atrial fibrillation virtually preventable. This has created a need for accurate Stroke Risk Assessment and Stratification.

Various stroke risk schemas over the years have included AFI/ SPAF (1994), CHADS2 (2001), Framingham (2003), NICE (2006) and the relatively recent CHA2DS2-VASc Score, also referred to as Birmingham 2009, that accounts for congestive heart failure, hypertension, 75 years of age and older (2 points), diabetes mellitus, previous stroke or transient ischemic attack (2 points), vascular disease, 65 to 74 years of age, female sex.

Kim et al study a total of 5855 oral anticoagulant (OAC) naïve patients with AF to determine whether the CHA2DS2-VASc score could be reliably used for the Asian population, because the validation studies were performed in an all-Caucasian cohort and various Asian studies have previously reported ethnic differences in the conventional stroke risk factors.

By |August 14th, 2017|clinical, prognosis|Comments Off on Stroke Risk Stratification in Non-Valvular Atrial Fibrillation — Validating CHA2DS2-VASc in an Asian Cohort
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