ASA: Stroke Patients Getting Younger

Kudos, fatsos.

The average age of patients presenting with a first stroke in the greater Cincinnati area dropped nearly three years from 71.3 in 1993 to 68.4 in 2005, researchers found.
The percentage of patients with stroke younger than 45 increased from 4.5% to 7.3% over the same time period, Brett Kissela, MD, of the University of Cincinnati Neuroscience Institute, reported at the American Stroke Association meeting here.

"That's tragic because young people, if they're disabled from stroke, that's a lot of productive life lost," he said.

"I think for many of them, they face a lifelong prospect of disability, reduced income levels, and challenges at home," commented Brian Silver, MD, a neurologist at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit...

Kissela and Silver, who was not involved in the study, both speculated that the increasing prevalence in younger people of risk factors typically found in older individuals, such as diabetes, hypertension, and obesity, may be driving the trend.

Stroke one and you're out!