New study links fat to stroke

A blood fat that wasn’t
considered such a high risk has been linked to large artery strokes.

SCRIPPS HOWARD

Although so-called “bad” or low-density cholesterol has been considered a signature of stroke risk, a new study suggests that elevated levels of other sorts of fat in the blood also raise the risk of a particular type of brain attack.

Researchers at the University of California Medical Center in Los Angeles analyzed records of 1,049 people admitted to a university hospital with a stroke or ministroke over a four-year period.

Of those patients, 247 suffered a large artery stroke — caused by a clot blockage of blood flow in large arteries to the brain.

They found that those with high triglycerides — fatty acids that are the most common type of fat in the blood — were 2.7 times more likely to have such a stroke than those with the lowest levels of the fat. And those with greater levels of nonhigh-density lipoprotein cholesterol — a sort of middle-of-the road blood fat that had not been considered a risk factor before — were 2.4 times more likely to have a large artery stroke.

And the study found that patients with the highest levels of LDL cholesterol did not have a higher risk of large artery stroke.

“The bad cholesterol [LDL] has been the primary target for reducing the risk of stroke, but these results show that other types may be more strongly linked,” said Dr. Bruce Ovbiagele, a neurologist who led the study.

“Because this type of cholesterol is included in the test that is normally ordered, and triglycerides are already reported, it would not be difficult to start paying closer attention to these factors in people at risk for larger artery stroke,” he added.

The researchers also stressed that monitoring LDL cholesterol levels is still important to identify risks for heart disease and other types of stroke.

The findings were reported online Wednesday by the journal Neurology, published by the American Academy of Neurology.