Poor concentration linked to high risk of stroke, finds study
POSTED February 2, 2010 - 16:50 | POSTED BY Neharika Sabharwal
Last edited by Harpreet Bhagrath on February 3, 2010 - 15:43
"Stroke is a leading cause of disability and death among older people, making early identification of people at high risk of stroke extremely important, so preventative measures can be taken," said study author Bernice Wiberg, MD, with Uppsala University in Sweden.
930 men studied for concentration powers
The researchers carried out a study to determine how interlinked the powers of concentration and memory are with the risk of stroke. They recruited 930 men in Sweden with an average age of 70 years and no history of stroke.
The men were asked to participate in three manual tests to gauge their ability to concentrate. The first test, called the Trail Making Test A, measures attention and visual-motor abilities.
The second, the Trail Making Test B, was to assess the ability to pay attention and carry out a task. The third, the Mini Mental State Examination, was used to gauge the mental decline of the subjects.
Observation by researchers
The men were then tracked over the next 13 years, during which time 166 of them suffered some form of stroke.
The study found that men who took the longest to complete Trail Making Test B, which involves making a sequence between letters and numbers on a computer screen to identify cognitive decline, were at risk of brain injury.
Men who took around 2.5 to 4 minutes to finish the test were three times more likely to suffer a stroke as opposed to those who completed the task quickly in 43 seconds to about 1.5 minutes.
However, the other two tests did not foretell stroke.
Wiberg stated, "Our results support the idea that cognitive decline regardless of whether a person has dementia may predict risk of stroke. The Trial Making Test B is a simple and cost-effective test that, with more research, could be used to identify those persons for whom stroke prevention measures should be considered.”
The findings are published in the journal Neurology.
A little about stroke
Strokes occurs when blood supply to part of the brain is disrupted, causing brain cells to die. There are two kinds of stroke. The more common kind, called ischemic stroke, is caused by a blood clot that blocks a blood vessel in the brain.
The other kind is called hemorrhagic stroke which occurs when a blood vessel breaks and bleeds into the brain. "Mini-strokes" or transient ischemic attacks (TIAs), occur when the blood supply to the brain is briefly interrupted.
The most important risk factors for stroke are high blood pressure, arterial fibrillation, high cholesterol, diabetes, obesity, addiction to excessive smoking and alcohol consumption.
