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Prospectively collected lifestyle and health information as risk factors for white matter hyperintensity volume in stroke patients

  • NEURO-EPIDEMIOLOGY
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Abstract

Most studies of white matter hyperintensity volume (WMHV) in stroke patients lack reliable information on antecedent exposure to vascular risk factors. By leveraging prospective cohort data, we explored associations between lifestyle and health factors assessed 1 year prior to stroke and WMHV in individuals who experienced an ischemic stroke. This analysis was nested within two large prospective studies of initially healthy individuals. Information on lifestyle factors and health conditions was collected prior to the stroke event through annual or biannual questionnaires. For individuals who experienced their first confirmed ischemic stroke and had available magnetic resonance imaging, we measured WMHV using a validated semiautomated method. Linear regression was used to explore associations between lifestyle factors and health conditions and log-transformed WMHV. We measured WMHV in 345 participants with a first ischemic stroke event (mean age = 74.4 years; 24.9% male). After multivariate adjustment, history of diabetes was associated with decreased WMHV (p value = 0.06) while history of transient ischemic attack (p value = 0.09) and hypertension (p value = 0.07) were associated with increased WMHV. Most lifestyle factors and health conditions measured 1 year prior to stroke were not associated with WMHV measured at the time of ischemic stroke. Future studies could examine whether long term exposure to these factors impacts diffuse microvascular ischemic brain injury among stroke patients.

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Funding

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (CA047988, HL043851, HL080467, HL099355, CA182913, U01 CA138962, R01 CA138962 and HL128791).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Preventive Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 900 Commonwealth Avenue, 3rd Floor, Boston, MA, 02215, USA

    Pamela M. Rist, Julie E. Buring & Nancy R. Cook

  2. Division of Women’s Health, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Kathryn M. Rexrode

  3. Department of Neurology, J. Philip Kistler Stroke Research Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Natalia S. Rost

Authors
  1. Pamela M. Rist
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  2. Julie E. Buring
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  4. Nancy R. Cook
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  5. Natalia S. Rost
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Correspondence to Pamela M. Rist.

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Rist, P.M., Buring, J.E., Rexrode, K.M. et al. Prospectively collected lifestyle and health information as risk factors for white matter hyperintensity volume in stroke patients. Eur J Epidemiol 34, 957–965 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-019-00546-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-019-00546-x

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