Stroke patients with low blood pressure and non-vascular conditions such as cancer and dementia are at an increased risk of death after stroke, according to a new study.
Researchers identified nearly 30,000 patients who had had a first ischemic stroke and also had outpatient blood measurements within 18 months before their stroke.
The group was then divided by blood pressure categories and then tracked for outcomes of all-cause and vascular mortality.
The researchers theorised that very high and very low blood pressure scores would be associated with a greater risk of mortality.
They found that patients with low blood pressure had the highest mortality risk and this was particularly prevalent with the subgroup that had at least one comorbidity of smoking, cardiovascular disease, cancer or dementia.
Corresponding author Hugo J. Aparicio, MD, MPH, assistant professor of neurology at Boston University School of Medicine and an investigator at the Framingham Heart Study, said:
“Our study suggests that stroke patients with history of low to low-normal blood pressures, some 10 percent of stroke patients, are at high risk of mortality.”
The researchers hope that identifying risk factors that contribute to death after stroke will help both patients and physicians.
Aparicio added: “Ideally, this information can encourage better prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of risk factors such as smoking, heart disease, and cancer, so that if a stroke does occur patients have a better chance at recovery and survival.”
High blood pressure is already an established risk factor for stroke and stroke mortality.
Earlier this week, it was announced that the NHS would make 220,000 free blood pressure monitors available to people diagnosed with high blood pressure.
More than 65,000 people have already received the device, which allows them to carry out checks at home.
The programme is estimated to prevent 2,200 heart attacks and almost 3,300 strokes over the next five years.
