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In a first, the guidelines link poor pregnancy outcomes to stroke and call on doctors to exercise greater vigilance.
New guidelines for preventing strokes spell out for the first time the risks faced by women, noting that pre-term births and conditions like endometriosis and early menopause can raise the risk.
“Prior guidelines tended to be sex-agnostic,” said Dr. Brian Snelling, director of the stroke program at Baptist Health South Florida’s Marcus Neuroscience Institute, who was not involved in writing the guidelines.
“Now we have more data about sex-specific subgroups, so you’re able to more appropriately screen those patients.”
The focus of the recommendations by the American Stroke Association, published on Monday in the journal Stroke, is primary prevention — the effort to prevent strokes in individuals who have never had one. It represents the first such update in a decade, and it’s the playbook by which millions of Americans will be cared for.
A stroke is a sudden blockage of blood flow to the brain, or sudden bleeding in the brain. It is a leading cause of the death in the United States, and the incidence has been rising even among adults 49 and younger, stoked by increases in obesity, high cholesterol, diabetes and — perhaps most significantly — high blood pressure.
Nearly 800,000 strokes occur each year, leading to severe disability and more than 160,000 deaths. Some 57 percent occur in women. At least 60 percent are preventable.