Pregnancy-related stroke risk is much greater among black women than among white women, reports a new study. The findings of the study are presented at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2019.
Stroke is the fifth-leading cause of death and a major cause of long-term disability in the United States.
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‘Black women are more likely to have a pregnancy-related stroke than white women. Hence, a new study suggests that it is essential to carefully look at all the modifiable risk factors that could help prevent stroke in these groups.’
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Women are more likely than men to have a stroke and to die as a result, and pregnancy increases the risk. Also, blacks are at higher risk than whites.
To find out if stroke risk differs by race during and after delivery researchers studied records from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample, a publicly available database of hospitalizations, from 1998 to 2014. These records comprised nearly 68 million delivery hospitalizations and 1.1 million post-delivery hospitalizations for women between 15- to 54-years-old.
![Stroke]( "Stroke")
Stroke can cause permanent disability and it is important to recognize its early warning signs to stop its progress. Early warning signs of stroke include sudden weakness of facial muscles.
Of the nearly 68 million delivery hospitalizations, 8,241 women were diagnosed with stroke during delivery. Of the 1.1 million hospitalizations after delivery, 11,073 women were readmitted for stroke. After studying the deliveries, they found:
Stroke
Stroke can cause permanent disability and it is important to recognize its early warning signs to stop its progress. Early warning signs of stroke include sudden weakness of facial muscles.
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Of the nearly 68 million delivery hospitalizations, 8,241 women were diagnosed with stroke during delivery. Of the 1.1 million hospitalizations after delivery, 11,073 women were readmitted for stroke. After studying the deliveries, they found:
- Black women were at 64 percent higher risk for stroke during delivery and 66 percent higher risk for stroke during postpartum admissions than white women.
- Black and Hispanic women with pregnancy-related, such as preeclampsia, were twice as likely as white women to have a stroke during delivery.
- Postpartum stroke hospitalizations for Hispanic women did not differ from white women. "Further research is needed to understand better if these high-risk groups would benefit from a more aggressive blood pressure control," said Maria Daniela Zambrano, M.D., study lead author and fellow in vascular neurology at Columbia University in New York. "It is also important to carefully look at all of the modifiable risk factors that could help prevent stroke in these groups."
Modifiable stroke risk factors include lifestyle changes, controlling high blood pressure, high cholesterol, weight, diabetes, and healthy eating, smoking cessation and physically activity.
"We have to identify our obstetric patients at higher risk of cerebrovascular complications and develop an individualized prenatal care plan after considering all their predisposing factors including race," Zambrano said.
The study used information from a national registry, which does not always record patients' race and ethnicity.
Source: Eurekalert
How to Deal with a Stroke
Stroke is a brain attack, which occurs when the blood supply to the brain is interrupted. It affects all age groups; according to the WHO, 15 million people are affected by stroke annually.
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 Heat StrokeHeat stroke is caused when body temperature or hyperthermia exceeds 40.6°C or 105.1°F. Heat stroke can be triggered due to overwork during summer months and lack of perspiration. | Advertisement
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