A study appearing in the American Stroke Association journal Stroke, indicates that the family risk of stroke and myocardial infarction (MI) may be linked to cerebrovascular and cardiovascular risk factors. During the study, researchers report that via the Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) cohort, they assessed a cross-sectional association between the stratified log-rank family score for stroke and MI prevalent risk factors. 

The study’s results suggest that patients in the fourth quartile of stratified log-rank family scores for stroke exhibited a greater probability than patients in the first quartile of suffering from prevalent risk factors including hypertension, left ventricular hypertrophy, diabetes, and atrial fibrillation (AF). According to researchers, these results were also reflected in the fourth quartile of stratified log-rank family scores for MI, indicating a greater probability of hypertension and diabetes compared to patients in the first quartile. Researchers add that unlike stroke, family risk for MI was linked to dyslipidemia and obesity.

The results go on to report that the combination of family risk for stroke and MI translates into a significant association with the majority of risk factors linked to each of the disease. Researchers suggest that the future implementation of family history and genetic studies designed to separate non-specific contributions of intermediate phenotypes from specific contributions to the disease phenotype, may provide a better understanding of transmission for the disorders.

Source: Stroke