“While further study is needed to will clarify how infection increases stroke risk, one can speculate that the physiologic changes related to infection (systemic inflammation, dehydration, and activation of the coagulation system) could tip the balance in a child already at risk for stroke”, wrote the editorialists.
Advertisement
Emphasizing the importance of vaccines for children, a new study found an increased risk of stroke in children who have been poorly vaccinated.
Based on data from 700 children across the nine different countries, researchers have linked recent illness-like bronchitis or an ear infection or even strep throat-can result in a six-fold increase in risk for childhood stroke.
Dr. Heather J. Fullerton, UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in San Francisco, is the lead author of the study and Fullerton stated that they are trying to build awareness that stroke in kids is quite possible.
Of the participants, 18 percent of the children with stroke had an infection the week before the stroke occurred and 3 percent of the children who did not have a stroke had an infection the week before the interview with researchers.
The researchers also interviewed parents to find out more about the children’s vaccination history and whether they had been exposed to any infection. “If your child is otherwise healthy, your child’s risk of having a stroke is very low”.
“There’s been suspicion about a link between infection and stroke for a while, moreso in adults”, she said.
The new research conducted by Fullerton and her colleagues is part of a large global case-control study of childhood stroke, called the Vascular Effects of Infection in Pediatric Stroke. “No matter how we cut the data… vaccines always appear to protect against childhood strokes”. Infections a month earlier were not tied to stroke risk, according to the results in Neurology. Biller and Heyer note that minor infections are common in children. Of these, 355 had experienced arterial ischemic stroke (AIS) – as confirmed by brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) – and 354 were free of stroke.
The analysis showed that children that suffered stroke were sick a week prior and had received few or no vaccinations.
Advertisement
Infants with stroke generally present with seizures, while older infants and school age kids with stroke will have similar symptoms to an adult, including weakness on one side of the body, Fullerton said. “Conceivably, this information will be seminal in drafting further stroke prevention strategies for childhood AIS”.
