27/10/2011

A study coordinated by the Neurovascular Research Group of Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR) attempts to determine, for the first time in the Mediterranean population, the frequency of silent strokes, those that are unnoticed and without clinical manifestations. Strokes are a major public health problem nowadays. When a patient has a stroke, it greatly increases the risk of suffering a second stroke and it is at this moment when medication can be prescribed to prevent this. Being able to identify the undetected strokes and determine the population-at risk, would mean to have a direct effect on the prevention of a second stroke and, in many cases, even to avoid it.One of the most serious problems for the neurologists is to foresee the stroke recurrence. It is estimated that after a first episode of stroke, between 6 and 12% of patients have a second stroke in the first year and up to 30% over the next 5 years. Many efforts are focused on the prevention of a second stroke. But, what happens when someone suffers a stroke and is not aware of it? If you don't know that you have suffered a stroke, you can not follow any treatment or take any preventive measure. The possibility of suffering a second stroke is then multiplied by 3, probably with manifestations of serious conditions, and the possibility of suffering some form of dementia is multiplied by 5. When a patient enters a hospital affected by a stroke, in a high proportion of the imaging tests performed (MRI, CTs, etc..) old injuries compatible with prior strokes appear. Sometimes patients do not report experiencing it. This fact, which is not anecdotal, has alerted the specialists. First, it warns them that these silent strokes frequently happen and, secondly, it points out the loss of opportunity for these patients to follow appropriate treatment and the likelyhood to have avoided this serious condition.