The new result opens the door to other preventive strategies
Lacunar strokes are small strokes that occur in deeper brain structures and, generally, they cause no symptoms. Although they may go unnoticed, these disorders do have consequences, and that its development has been associated with cognitive and start of dementia. An Australian research has shown that hypertension is a major risk factor for its appearance, thus opening the door to preventive strategies.
The authors of this paper, published in the journal Neurology, they wanted to analyze the prevalence of such strokes common in elderly people, and the various factors that may contribute to its onset. To do this, followed up for four years to a sample of 477 people aged between 60 and 64 years.
At the beginning of the investigation, and other general medical evaluations, each participant underwent an MRI, an imaging technique that can detect the disorder. At that time, a total of 37 patients, 7.8% of the sample-had little damage to his brain caused by a lacunar stroke.
Four years later, the tests were repeated, and the researchers found that six patients had undergone this type of stroke and that the volume had grown previously detected.
This latter finding, the researchers said, “may indicate a gradual process of atrophy of the tissues surrounding the injury.”
The risks of hypertension
In analyzing the available information, these authors found that people who had hypertension had a much higher risk of developing these silent stroke than other participants.
They also noted that people who had other types of brain damage called hyperintense lesions in the white matter were also more likely to have lacunar stroke.
In its conclusions, the researchers pointed out that “the progression of these lesions is not identical or is triggered by the same risk factors,” in his words, although both disorders are related to a vascular problem, not fully linked.
“In our work we found that lacunar infarcts are common in individuals over 60 years, and its size and its prevalence increases with age,” the authors emphasize in their findings, with particular emphasis on the importance, for this population has adequate management of hypertension. “It is the main risk factor (for this disorder) and is treatable,” they said.
Tags: brain, hyperintense lesions, Hypertension, Hypertension Damages, Lacunar strokes, stroke