Blood fats raise risk of large artery stroke

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People with high triglycerides and non-HDL cholesterol, which is neither the "good" nor the "bad" cholesterol, are at increased risk for a certain type of stroke called large artery atherosclerotic stroke, new research shows.

Interestingly, "bad" LDL cholesterol was not a significant risk factor for large artery stroke, the study team reports in the December 26th online issue of Neurology.

LDL cholesterol "has been the primary target for reducing the risk of stroke, but these results show that other types of cholesterol may be more strongly linked with stroke risk," Dr. Bruce Ovbiagele, from the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, said in a statement.

The researchers looked at the records of 1,049 people admitted to a hospital with a stroke or mini-stroke over four years. Of those, 247 people had large artery strokes. This is a type of stroke caused by a blockage of blood flow to the brain. People with this type of stroke have blockage in the large arteries leading to the brain.

The researchers found that people with high triglycerides and elevated non-HDL cholesterol were more likely to have a large artery atherosclerotic stroke than those with low levels of these fats in the blood.

Those with the highest triglycerides were 2.7 times more likely to have this type of stroke than those with the lowest levels. Triglycerides are fatty acids and are the most common type of fat in the blood. People with the highest non-HDL cholesterol levels were 2.4 times more likely to have a large artery stroke.

"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 large artery stroke," Ovbiagele said.

SOURCE: Neurology, online December 26, 2007.