Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. May 16, 2015; 3(5): 418-429
Published online May 16, 2015. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v3.i5.418
Cardiovascular risk factors for acute stroke: Risk profiles in the different subtypes of ischemic stroke
Adrià Arboix
Adrià Arboix, Unit of Cerebrovascular Diseases, Service of Neurology, Hospital Universitari del Sagrat Cor, University of Barcelona, E-08029 Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
Author contributions: Arboix A designed the research, performed the PubMed bibliographic research, analyzed data and wrote the paper.
Conflict-of-interest: None to be declared.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Adrià Arboix, MD, PhD, Unit of Cerebrovascular Division, Service of Neurology, Hospital Universitari del Sagrat Cor, University of Barcelona, C/Viladomat 288, E-08029 Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. aarboix@hscor.com
Telephone: +34-93-4948940 Fax: +34-93-4948906
Received: August 6, 2014
Peer-review started: August 12, 2014
First decision: September 16, 2014
Revised: January 14, 2015
Accepted: February 10, 2015
Article in press: February 12, 2015
Published online: May 16, 2015
Abstract

Timely diagnosis and control of cardiovascular risk factors is a priority objective for adequate primary and secondary prevention of acute stroke. Hypertension, atrial fibrillation and diabetes mellitus are the most common risk factors for acute cerebrovascular events, although novel risk factors, such as sleep-disordered breathing, inflammatory markers or carotid intima-media thickness have been identified. However, the cardiovascular risk factors profile differs according to the different subtypes of ischemic stroke. Atrial fibrillation and ischemic heart disease are more frequent in patients with cardioembolic infarction, hypertension and diabetes in patients with lacunar stroke, and vascular peripheral disease, hypertension, diabetes, previous transient ischemic attack and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in patients with atherothrombotic infarction. This review aims to present updated data on risk factors for acute ischemic stroke as well as to describe the usefulness of new and emerging vascular risk factors in stroke patients.

Keywords: Cardiovascular risk factors, Hypertension, Atrial fibrillation, Diabetes mellitus, Ischemic stroke, Transient ischemic attack, Sleep apnea

Core tip: Prevention of acute stroke by controlling cardiovascular risk factors is a health care priority worldwide for a number of reasons, particularly due to the increasing occurrence of acute cardiovascular events in progressively older segments of the population, the high morbidity and mortality of some stroke subtypes and the economic burden associated to care of acute stroke patients. The frequency of the different cardiovascular risk factors is not equal for all subjects diagnosed of first-ever stroke. For this reason, it is necessary to know the most common profiles of vascular risk factors associated with each individual type of stroke in order to improve primary and secondary stroke prevention strategies. The role of new risk factors, such as sleep-disordered breathing or complex atheromatosis of the aortic arch merits further investigation.