Acute ischemic stroke linked to elevated risk for heart attack within 1 year
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Key takeaways:
- Acute ischemic stroke or stroke plus cervical artery dissection was associated with increased 1-year heart attack risk.
- Cervical artery dissection alone was not tied to elevated heart attack risk.
Patients who experience acute ischemic stroke may be at elevated risk for heart attack within 1 year of their index event, according to study findings presented during the International Stroke Conference.
“Our findings may aid physicians in assessing and managing cardiovascular risk after these events,” Liqi Shu, MD, clinical fellow in neurology at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, said in a press release.
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For this study, Shu and colleagues used inpatient databases from New York and Florida to identify 827,761 patients (mean age, 63 years; 62% women) with no head or neck trauma with acute ischemic stroke, cervical artery dissection or concomitant acute ischemic stroke and cervical artery dissection. A reference group of patients with transient ischemic attack, transient global amnesia or migraine was also included.
Overall, 2.39% of the cohort experienced an MI within 1 year, including 1.4% of the reference group, 3.4% of the acute ischemic stroke group, 1.5% of the cervical artery dissection group and 1.8% of concomitant acute ischemic stroke and cervical artery dissection group.
After probability of treatment weighting analysis, adjusting for age, diabetes, HF, CAD and hyperlipidemia, patients with acute ischemic stroke alone had the highest risk for MI within 1 year (adjusted HR = 1.87; 95% CI, 1.75-1.99; P < .001) compared with the reference group, followed by patients with concomitant cervical artery dissection and acute ischemic stroke (aHR = 1.26; 95% CI, 1.05-1.5; P = .012).
Risk for 1-year MI was not significant among patients with cervical artery dissection alone compared with the reference group (aHR = 1.142; 95% CI, 0.82-1.58; P = .42), according to the study.
“Before, it was just a guess, but now we know that carotid or vertebral artery dissection not causing a stroke does not raise the risk of a heart attack, and it makes sense that clinicians should focus predominantly on stroke prevention in this subgroup of patients,” Shu said in the release.
Reference:
- Stroke or stroke plus neck artery tear almost doubled risk of heart attack within a year. https://newsroom.heart.org/news/stroke-or-stroke-plus-neck-artery-tear-almost-doubled-risk-of-heart-attack-within-a-year. Published Feb. 1, 2024. Accessed Feb. 9, 2024.
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Shu L, et al. Abstract Poster WP244. Presented at: International Stroke Conference; Feb. 7-9, 2024; Phoenix.
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