Women less likely to be tested post-stroke

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Sep 26, 2005 (UPI via COMTEX) -- A University of Michigan study in Ann Arbor indicates women surviving a stroke are less likely than men to receive heart and neck artery tests.

Such tests can help improve stroke victims' treatment and reduce their risk of a second stroke, the researchers said.

The difference in testing between men and women may help explain why women tend to have a worse long-term outcome from stroke, including a higher death rate.

The findings, from a study of 1,234 stroke patients treated in Texas community hospitals, show about 88 percent of all strokes are ischemic, which means they're caused by blood clots traveling to the brain or by blockages in the carotid arteries in the neck that supply blood to the brain.

"Diagnostic evaluations that should be done on every ischemic stroke patient still aren't being performed on a third to a half of patients, and they're less likely to be performed on women," said senior author Dr. Lewis Morgenstern, director of the stroke program in the U-M Cardiovascular Center. "Intervention is needed to increase access to quality stroke care for all patients, but especially women."

The findings are published in the journal Neurology.

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