Nearly one in six teens and adults who initially survive a stroke before age 50 die over the next decade, a Finnish study showed

The mortality rate of people who survived at least a month after having a stroke at age 15 to 49 was 15.7% over a mean 10 years of follow-up and 23.0% cumulatively with up to 17 years of follow-up, Karoliina Aarnio, MD, of the Helsinki University Central Hospital, and colleagues found.

That rate was seven-fold higher than that of the age- and sex-matched general population, they reported in the September issue of Stroke.

Recurrent stroke, which occurred in 13.6%, was the biggest threat to survival, raising the risk of death 16.68-fold compared with individuals experiencing single strokes, after adjustment for baseline factors (P=0.005).

"The high mortality rates and the striking impact of recurrent stroke on the risk of death should lead to development of more robust primary and secondary prevention strategies for young patients with stroke," they argued.

Their "nearly population-based" study included 970 consecutive 30-day survivors of first-ever ischemic stroke ages 15 to 49 years at the only hospital in Finland with a neurological emergency unit over the period from 1994 through 2007.

Patients were prospectively followed through the Finnish Care Register for Health Care and Statistics Finland records.

All pathogenetic subgroups except low-risk source of cardioembolism and internal carotid artery dissection groups had an observed mortality rate that exceeded the expected mortality in the general population in Finland.

Source: www.medpagetoday.com