Women, Mexican-Americans at higher risk of ruptured brai...( ANN ARBOR Mich. A type of stroke t...),Health

ANN ARBOR, Mich. A type of stroke that can strike at any age, and kills one-third of its victims, appears to be more common in women and Mexican-Americans than in non-Hispanic white men, according to a new study from the University of Michigan Stroke Program.

In a paper published online June 11 by the journal Neurology, the researchers report that women had a 74 percent greater chance of suffering a type of stroke related to a ruptured brain aneurysm. Mexican-Americans of both genders had a 67 percent greater chance.

The type of stroke measured in the study is called a subarachnoid hemorrhage, or SAH. The new research may help public health officials reach out to higher-risk groups with information on prevention and the importance of rapid treatment.

The new paper also gives a "real world" picture of the risk of dying from an SAH, which was nearly one in three in the geographic region in the study. That region, Nueces County, Texas, where the city of Corpus Christi is located, has a large Mexican-American population and does not have a major university health system.

Although African Americans and Asian Americans were included in the initial screening portion of the study, which reviewed the medical records of 6,550 stroke patients, their numbers were too small to assess any differences in risk of SAH.

"Physicians and public health officials should help Mexican Americans and women take steps that might prevent subarachnoid hemorrhage, and other types of stroke that have already been shown to be more common in these two groups," says senior author Lewis Morgenstern, M.D. "Given that Mexican Americans are the largest and fastest-growing minority group in the United States, it's important to understand how this condition might affect them differently, and tailor messages to them."

Morgenstern, who directs the Stroke Program at the U-M Cardiovascular Center, is a professor of neurology and neuros
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