“If your child is otherwise healthy, your child’s risk of having a stroke is very low”. Researchers calculated through their findings that children with a stroke were six times more likely to have an infection in the previous week than those who did not have a stroke.
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As the authors caution, the increased risk, while tangibly seen, should be taken in the context of how unlikely the chances of suffering a stroke is for any child.
The University of California, San Francisco professor of child neurology and Benioff Children’s Hospital pediatric stroke neurologist goes on to say, “It basically offers a few explanation why a stroke may happen on a particular day in a child’s life, and offers an opportunity for stroke prevention”. In addition to interviews with parents, the researchers specifically looked at whether the children had been exposed to an infection and their vaccine history.
For the study, researchers reviewed the medical charts and conducted parent interviews of 355 children under 18 diagnosed with a stroke and 354 stroke-free children of similar ages. Studies show, however, that the risk for stroke among children increases with a cold or an infection like the flu. The team observed that in the stroke group, 18 percent of the participants had acquired a kind of infection in the week before the stroke occurred.
“There’s been suspicion about a link between infection and stroke for a while, moreso in adults”, she said.
Half of the children with stroke were age seven or older.
According to this analysis, the infection itself triggers the stroke, not cold medicines, which were used infrequently by parents in the study.
Still, Eppes states, “I would probably make an effort to insert elements in viewpoint for fogeys and call one that often pathologies by having high temperature are more probable to symbolize something that poor with a illness perspective when compared to coming from a attack position of view”. The team also shed light on the belief that cold medications cause strokes, claiming that the study found no evidence to support this. “Minor infections… are usually not associated with stroke to an extent anyone should worry about”.
Respiratory tract infection may act as a trigger for childhood arterial ischemic stroke (AIS), and routine vaccinations appear protective, according to a large, worldwide case-control study.
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“I think further studies will be needed, but this was a very well-conducted study, particularly in a population that has been less well-studied [than] adults with stroke”, said Biller.
