Hong Kong Stardard – 3 April 09
A highly fatal type of stroke appears to occur more frequently during the coldest months of winter and when atmospheric pressure rises, doctors have observed.
In an article published in the Hong Kong Medical Journal, researchers said such strokes, called aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage, peak in January.
”It is the most fatal type of brain hemorrhage, with a mortality rate of 50 percent,” said George Wong, associate professor at the Prince of Wales Hospital’s neurosurgery division.
Those who do not survive usually die on the day of the stroke.
Wong and his colleagues studied records of 135 patients who suffered this form of stroke from October 2002 to October 2006, and found that most of the strokes occurred in winter.
”The incidence is higher in winter, which correlates with changes in atmospheric pressure,” he said.
Wong’s team will try to find out the actual processes that changes in atmospheric pressure trigger in the human brain, but he said it may have to do with blood pressure change.
”It [such a stroke] is more common in patients with hypertension and smokers,” he said.
”The two messages we want to bring out are for people to be more aware of weather conditions and for people to control their blood pressure and, of course, quit smoking.”
REUTERS