Relative Risk: Ischemic Stroke is a Family Affair - CME Teaching Brief® - MedPage Today

AAN: Relative Risk: Ischemic Stroke is a Family Affair - CME Teaching Brief® - MedPage Today: "BOSTON, May 4 -- Siblings of middle-age stroke patients have nearly twice the risk of strokes themselves compared with the average American.

Explain to patients that previous studies have shown Mexican Americans to be at higher risk for stroke than non-Hispanic whites, and this population-based suggests that genetic, environmental, or cultural factors may play a part.

This study was published as an abstract and presented as a poster and orally in a briefing at a conference. These data and conclusions should be considered to be preliminary as they have not yet been reviewed and published in a peer-reviewed publication.
Among 807 brothers and sisters of 181 men and women who had strokes or TIAs before the age of 65, the relative risk for stroke was 1.92, compared with national stroke prevalence estimates, said Lynda D. Lisabeth, Ph.D., of the University of Michigan, and colleagues, at the American Academy of Neurology meeting here.
The risk for stroke among the siblings of stroke victims was particularly high among Mexican Americans in general, and Mexican-American men in particular in a community-based study, reported co-author Lewis B. Morgenstern, M.D., also of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
'If we compare Mexican Americans to non-Hispanic whites, we find that the risk to the sibling is especially prominent in Mexican Americans, with over a doubling of the risk compared to the general population,' said Dr. Morgenstern. 'The risk is not as substantial in non-Hispanic whites as it is Mexican Americans.' "/.../