The International Stroke Conference, held in February in San Antonio, offered neurologists a wealth of research abstracts and late-breaking stroke science. Among the findings presented were:

 

Smoking makes people with three specific gene changes five times more likely to develop an aneurism.

 

Two ways to open narrowed neck arteries — surgery or stenting — proved similarly safe and effective. Yet younger patients had fewer cardiovascular events with an implanted stent, while older patients had fewer events with the surgical option.

 

Compared to patients taking aspirin, patients taking the antiplatelet drug cilostazol were less likely to have a subsequent ischemic stroke or develop bleeding requiring hospitalization.

 

A new anti-clotting drug, dabigatran, proved as effective as the blood thinner warfarin – and at a lower dose. Dabigatran produced less risk of bleeding in the brain than warfarin did. The drug is not U.S. approved, but it is available in other countries to prevent blood clots after elective hip- and knee-replacement surgery.

 

One study found that blacks are more likely to have an undiagnosed key risk factor for stroke: atrial fibrillation. For blacks who are diagnosed, they are less likely to be treated with proper medication.

 

Placing stents in the brain and injecting clot-busting drugs directly to the brain had better success rates for acute ischemic stroke than other treatments. There was no excess risk of hemorrhage from either of the two treatments.

 

Post-menopausal women who ate the most daily dietary fat had a 40 percent higher incidence of ischemic stroke compared to those who consumed the least. In addition, high trans-fat consumption was associated with a 30 percent increase in the incidence of stroke caused by blockages in the brain.

 

Often considered a disease of old age, stroke is declining in the elderly and increasing at younger ages. The percentage of strokes occurring in people under age 45 has grown significantly since the 1990s.