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Infections May Raise Stroke Risk in Children: Study

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WEDNESDAY, Feb. 1 (HealthDay News) -- Many kids who suffer a stroke had some sort of an infection in the days leading up to the stroke, a recent study says.

However, childhood stroke is rare as well as parents shouldn't be unduly alarmed by these findings, the researchers noted.

The researchers analyzed data collected from 2.5 million kids enrolled in a health plan in California between 1993 as well as 2007 as well as identified 126 cases of childhood ischemic stroke, which is caused by reduced blood flow to the brain. These cases were compared with a control group of 378 kids of similar age who didn't suffer a stroke.

The study found that 29 percent of the kids who suffered a stroke had an infection in the two days before the stroke, compared with 1 percent of the control group kids.

Thirteen percent of the kids who suffered a stroke had an infection three to seven days before their stroke, compared with 2 percent of the control group kids.

The increased risk of stroke did not continue after the earliest month of infection, according to the study slated for Wednesday presentation at the American Stroke Association meeting in Recent Orleans.

The kids in the stroke group ranged from infants to adolescents. The average age was 10.5 years as well as the oldest child was 19. The researchers found no difference in stroke between girls as well as boys or among ethnic groups.

The researchers did find that acute infections were more likely to trigger stroke than chronic infections.

"These were predominantly minor acute infections as well as represented a variety of infections, including upper respiratory infections, urinary tract infections as well as ear infections. No particular class of infection predominated," principal investigator Dr. Heather Fullerton, director of the Pediatric Stroke as well as Cerebrovascular Disease Center at the University of California, San Francisco, said in a stroke association news release.

In the United States, the incidence of stroke in kids is about five per 100,000 per year, the release noted.

"Childhood infections are exceedingly ordinary, while childhood strokes are uncommon," Fullerton said. "Parents should not be alarmed at the findings of this study. We suspect that there are rare genetic factors that may place some kids at risk for this uncommon effect of ordinary infections."

Infection is a known risk factor for ischemic stroke in adults.

Because this study was presented at a health examination meeting, the data as well as conclusions should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

-- Robert Preidt

Copyright © 2012 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

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