Cholesterol and risk of stroke: Cholesterol, stroke, and age

doi:10.1136/bmj.333.7559.148

BMJ 2006;333:148 (15 July), doi:10.1136/bmj.333.7559.148

Letter

Cholesterol and risk of stroke

Cholesterol, stroke, and age

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—Ebrahim et al studied whether blood cholesterolconcentrations are predictive for haemorrhagic and ischaemicstroke in a large cohort of young and middle aged Korean civilservants.¹ They found that low concentrations of cholesterolwere associated with haemorrhagic stroke while high concentrationswere associated with ischaemic stroke.

The incidence of stroke rises sharply with increasing age. Theoverwhelming majority of all strokes occur in subjects aged70 and over. The mean age of the participants in this studywas about 42 (SD 9). This means that 95% of study participantswere under 60 at baseline and therefore under 70 at end of follow-up.This is important since the predictive value of total cholesterolconcentration for cardiovascular mortality is heavily dependenton age. After 70 there seems to be no association with cardiovascularmortality,² while after 80 high total cholesterol concentrationmight even be beneficial.^{3 4} A similar pattern with . . . [Full text of this article]

Anton J M de Craen, epidemiologist

craen@lumc.nl, Department of Gerontology and Geriatrics, Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, 2300 RC, Netherlands

Gerard J Blauw, consultant in internal medicine, Rudi G J Westendorp, professor

Department of Gerontology and Geriatrics, Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, 2300 RC, Netherlands

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