Common infections linked to stroke in children; vaccines may reduce risk

Abstracts: 36, 38 and 39 (room 28A-D)

2014-02-12

(Press-News.org) Common infections are associated with a significantly higher chance of stroke in children, but routine vaccinations may help decrease risk, according to preliminary research (abstract 39) presented at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2014.

"The protective association of routine vaccination against childhood stroke provides a widely available means of prevention, and this information can easily be dispersed by pediatric healthcare providers," said Nancy Hills, Ph.D., M.B.A., lead researcher and assistant professor of neurology at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center.

The international study, Vascular effects of Infection in Pediatric Stroke (VIPS) is a prospective study examining the link between infections and ischemic stroke, the most common type of stroke. (Ischemic stroke is caused by a clot that blocks blood flow in or leading to the brain.)

Previous research by Hills and co-authors found that minor infections were related to an increased risk, but it was unclear whether infection actually could help predict future stroke.

In the VIPS study, researchers found that common infections within the past week were linked to more than six times the risk of stroke, Hills said. Seventeen percent of the stroke patients vs. 3 percent of the non-stroke patients were reported to have had any minor infection in the prior week. The most frequent types of infection were colds and other upper respiratory infections (8 percent of the stroke and 2.4 percent of the non-stroke patients reported an occurrence of these kinds of infections in the prior week).

However, routine vaccinations were associated with a lower stroke risk.

Children who had "some, few or no" routine vaccinations were 6.7 times more likely to have an ischemic stroke than those receiving "all or most" vaccines, including those against polio, measles, mumps, rubella and pneumococcus.

Researchers interviewed parents or guardians of 310 children who had a stroke to determine the presence and timing of any infectious illnesses prior to their stroke. They compared their findings with 289 children who hadn't experienced a stroke, but had visited the doctor for an annual checkup, routine follow-up for headaches or developmental delay, or trauma.

The median age of the children who had a stroke was 7.5 years, and the median age among the comparison group was slightly more than 8.

"Because many childhood strokes appear to have no clear cause, and others likely have more than one cause, preventive measures have not been forthcoming," Hills said. "It is very promising that childhood vaccinations appear to have a protective effect."

In other VIPS analyses (abstracts 36 & 38) researchers found that infections with parvovirus B19 (the cause of "slapped cheek syndrome") and different herpes viruses also were linked to a significantly greater stroke risk. Blood tests indicated that 41 percent of stroke patients had an active herpes infection, compared to 9 percent of non-stroke patients.

"VIPS is the largest-ever NIH-funded study of childhood stroke," said Heather J. Fullerton, M.D., M.A.S., principal investigator for the VIPS study and Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics at University of California San Francisco. "These three abstracts represent the first results of this important international effort."

INFORMATION: Other VIPS researchers are: Gabrielle A. DeVeber, M.D., M.Sc.; Mitchell S. Elkind, M.D., M.S.; Max Wintermark, M.D.; Carol A. Glaser, M.D.; Katherine Sear, M.P.H.; Jorge M. Luna, M.P.H; W. Ian Lipkin, M.D; Kawthar Muhammad, B.A.; and Rafal Tokarz, Ph.D. Author disclosures are on the abstracts.

The VIPS study is funded by the National Institutes of Health.

VIPS represents the work of the International Pediatric Stroke Study (IPSS), a consortium of pediatric stroke investigators established in 2003 by Dr. Gabrielle DeVeber at the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto. The 40 IPSS centers enrolling in VIPS are located on five continents and have now enrolled almost 350 cases and 350 controls — numbers that can only be achieved through a large collaborative effort like this. The VIPS study is co-lead by Fullerton and DeVeber, Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.

Downloadable video/audio interviews, B-roll, animation and images related to this news release are on the right column of the release link http://newsroom.heart.org/news/common-infections-linked-to-stroke-in-children;-vaccines-may-reduce-risk?preview=f68fbdcde8a8d0483cd2858f7ebce09f. Video clips with researchers/authors of the studies will be added to the release link after embargo.

Follow news from the International Stroke Conference 2014 via Twitter: @HeartNews #ISC14.

Statements and conclusions of study authors that are presented at American Stroke Association scientific meetings are solely those of the study authors and do not necessarily reflect association policy or position. The association makes no representation or warranty as to their accuracy or reliability. The association receives funding primarily from individuals; foundations and corporations (including pharmaceutical, device manufacturers and other companies) also make donations and fund specific association programs and events. The association has strict policies to prevent these relationships from influencing the science content. Revenues from pharmaceutical and device corporations are available at http://www.heart.org/corporatefunding. Note:

Actual presentation for abstract 36 is 8:40 a.m. PT Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2014.
Actual presentation for abstract 38 is 9:04 a.m. PT Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2014.
Actual presentation for abstract 39 is 9:16 a.m. PT Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2014.

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

More awareness, fast response key to combatting stroke in children

2014-02-12

Parents and healthcare professionals must be aware that children can have strokes and be prepared to respond to symptoms, according to research presented at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2014. As in adults, warning signs of stroke in children are: sudden weakness or numbness of the face, arm or leg; sudden difficulty in speaking; sudden problems in seeing; sudden difficulty walking; dizziness; or sudden onset of headache. Researchers interviewed 28 parents whose child had a stroke about factors that contributed to delayed arrival to ...

Cocaine may increase stroke risk within 24 hours of use

2014-02-12

Cocaine greatly increases ischemic stroke risk in young adults within 24 hours of use, according to research presented at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2014. Ischemic strokes occur when a blood vessel supplying blood to the brain becomes blocked, preventing a continuous supply of blood to the brain. "We set out to understand what factors contribute to stroke risk in young adults," said Yu-Ching Cheng, Ph.D., research scientist at Baltimore Veterans Affairs Medical Center and assistant professor of medicine at the University of Maryland ...

Weather changes may be linked with stroke hospitalization, death

2014-02-12

Stroke hospitalization and death rates may rise and fall with changes in environmental temperature and dew point, according to research presented at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2014. "Weather is not something people would typically associate with stroke risk; however, we've found weather conditions are among the multiple factors that are associated with stroke hospitalizations," said Judith H. Lichtman, Ph.D., M.P.H., study author and an associate professor in Epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health in New Haven, Conn. Researchers ...

Lost and found: New beetle collected by Darwin 180 years ago published on his birthday

2014-02-12

In 1832 Charles Darwin disembarked from HMS Beagle in Bahia Blanca, Argentina where he travelled by land to Buenos Aires. In Bahia Blanca, Darwin collected several fossils of large mammals along with many other living organisms, including several insects. More than 180 years later on Darwin's birthday, February 12, scientists name after him a long lost but new to science beetle genus and species from this collection. The beetle was discovered and described by Dr. Stylianos Chatzimanolis, an entomologist at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, USA as a new genus ...

Use of mortality as measure of stroke care questioned

2014-02-12

A new study disputes the effectiveness of mortality as a measure of the quality of care provided by hospitals to stroke patients. The paper – which was simultaneously presented today at the International Stroke Conference in San Diego and published in the journal Stroke – found that use of do-not-resuscitate (DNR) orders differ widely between hospitals and that this variation can significantly skew a hospital's quality "ranking" based on mortality. "With mortality increasingly being used as a marker for the quality of care provided to stroke patients, it is essential ...

"You hide it -- I'll find it!" -- Great tit has a bird's eye view when looking for dinner

2014-02-12

Birds that hoard food for a rainy day better be sure that there are no great tits around to spy on where they hide their reserve of seeds and nuts. So says Anders Brodin and Utku Urhan of the University of Lund in Sweden, who found that great tits can remember the position of such hideaways up to 24 hours after seeing it cached. Interestingly, even though great tits share this mental ability with well-known hoarders such as crows and jays, they do not store up food themselves. The findings appear in Springer's journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. Observations ...

New data shows continued decline of African forest elephants

2014-02-12

London (February 12, 2014)—New data from the field in Central Africa shows that between 2002 and 2013, 65 percent of forest elephants were killed. They are being poached, for their ivory, at a shocking 9 percent per year. This new data marks an update to an earlier paper in the online journal PLOS ONE on the status of forest elephants across Central Africa, published by the same scientists. Many organisations collaborated in the study which covered 80 sites, in five countries, over the twelve years of data collection. The earlier paper, published in 2013, already had ...

Capillaries will measure diffusion and help in more efficient medical treatment

2014-02-12

How strongly do two dissolved analytes react with each other? Such information is of paramount importance not only in chemistry and molecular biology, but also in medicine or pharmacy, where it is used, i.a., to determine optimal drug doses. A method developed in the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw will allow for determining diffusion coefficients of analytes in fluids and equilibrium constants of reactions – quickly, at low cost, and most importantly: universally. In many medical therapies, a prerequisite for efficient treatment ...

Genetic find might lead to cattle that are more resistant to TB

2014-02-12

Scientists have identified genetic traits in cattle that might allow farmers to breed livestock with increased resistance to bovine tuberculosis (TB). The study, which compared the genetic code of TB-infected animals with that of disease-free cattle, could help to impact on a disease that leads to major economic losses worldwide. The research, led by the University of Edinburgh's Roslin Institute, has identified a number of genetic signatures associated with TB resistance in the cows that remained unaffected. The study builds on previous research by The Roslin Institute, ...

Mindfulness meditation may improve decision making

2014-02-12

One 15-minute focused-breathing meditation may help people make smarter choices, according to new research from researchers at INSEAD and The Wharton School. The findings are published in the February issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. People have trouble cutting their losses: They hold on to losing stocks too long, they stay in bad relationships, and they continue to eat large restaurant meals even when they're full. This behavior, often described as "throwing good money after bad," is driven by what behavioral scientists ...

Common infections linked to stroke in children; vaccines may reduce risk

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: