Irish researchers discover a way to pinpoint the risk of a stroke

Did you know that strokes cause more deaths in Ireland than breast cancer, prostate cancer and bowel cancer combined? We bet you didn’t.

This year alone, 10,000 people in Ireland will suffer a stroke. Of that number, 2,000 people will die. And 1 in 5 Irish people will have a stroke at some time in their lives. These figures illustrate just how much of a health problem strokes are in the country.

However the good news is that Irish researchers have discovered a way to pinpoint the risk of a previous stroke sufferer having another attack. Clearly we have some incredibly brainy people in the country.

IrishHealth.com reports that researchers at the Mater Hospital and University College Dublin have found that plaque inflammation in the carotid artery can actually predict the first signs of a stroke in a patient who has already suffered from one.

What this basically means is that doctors will be able to predict a stroke before it comes on and hopefully save the life of the patient before the stroke can do any further damage.

“This could fundamentally change the way in which we target and treat patients who present following a mini-stroke,” said consultant neurologist Professor Peter Kelly, the chief investigator with the study.

“It means we may be able to significantly reduce the number of people who suffer a second stroke during the high-risk period by identifying and treating them more quickly,” he added.

For anyone who knows someone that has suffered a stroke, this is great news as it could completely revolutionize the way that stroke patients are treated.

The researches have said that their findings could be used in trials to identify drugs that can attack and reduce levels of inflammation in the carotid artery – the area where strokes begin.

These findings offer hope to thousands of families across Ireland who are currently caring for a stroke sufferer and hopefully, it will help in the fight to lower the number of stroke deaths in the country.