Just one common blood test that is taken to estimate a person's possibility of developing heart disease might also be able to forecast the risk of a recurring ischemic stroke.
"The biggest risk of death for someone who has already had a stroke is to have another one," said Stephen Williams, one of the researchers from University of Virginia School of Medicine.
When there are blockages that do not allow the flow of blood to the brain, they can lead to 85 percent of strokes. Studies discovered that there is a link between high levels of C-Reactive Protein (CRP) found in the blood and the risk of the attack. CRP generated in the liver responds to inflammation, and can be checked to find out the risk of developing coronary artery or heart disease.
It could also help to identify patients at greatest risk of a recurrent stroke.
"So it's really important to be able to try and target those individuals who are at the highest risk for the thing that very well may kill them," Williams noted.
The findings were published online in the journal Neurology.
Williams' team examined the effect of genes on the levels of biomarkers such as CRP in our blood. They discovered that higher CRP levels indicated a greater stroke risk, and they also identified gene variations behind such risks.
The team found that elevated CRP levels seem to hint at increased stroke risk. They were able to locate gene variations underlining the risks.
"So we have the genetics influencing (CRP) levels, which then increases the risk of having a recurrent stroke. Then we went back and said alright, can we predict the increased risk purely based on the genetics, which we were able to do," said Williams.
Williams pointed out that there is a "shared genetic susceptibility" for enhanced C-Reactive Protein and also for a greater susceptibility to stroke. He said that they could estimate "a hazard ratio." This was the bigger risk that a person faces for undergoing, or perhaps not undergoing, a second stroke, and it was completely based on the genetics, he pointed out.
"Getting a CRP measure on someone is really simple. It's just a blood draw. You don't have to take something like a biopsy which patients might have an aversion to," Williams explained."It's not very expensive, and it's part of routine workups that could be done for patients. However, combined with genetic information, we may have even more power to identify those at greatest risk."
