Self-Attacking Antibodies Up Stroke Risk in Women

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Self-Attacking Antibodies Up Stroke Risk in Women

Thu Oct 10,11:24 AM ET

By Alison McCook

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Young women who carry antibodies that attack

their own tissues appear to have a higher risk of suffering a stroke, new

study findings suggest.

Study author Dr. Robin L. Brey of the University of Texas Health Science

Center in San told Reuters Health that only a relatively small

percentage of healthy women carry these antibodies, known as autoantibodies,

and many who do have them experience no symptoms.

Consequently, these results are not a call to all young women to ask their

doctor to determine if they carry autoantibodies, the researcher noted.

And for women who know they have autoantibodies, the only recommendation is

that they pay careful attention to the risk factors that also apply to women

who are autoantibody-free, Brey added. These include stopping smoking,

maintaining normal weight and controlling blood pressure and diabetes.

" So the factors we recommend for stroke prevention in any person would be

very important in a person with these antibodies, " Brey said.

Brey and her colleagues base their findings on analyzes of blood samples

from 160 women between the ages of 15 and 44 who had experienced stroke and

340 of their similarly aged peers.

Reporting in the October issue of Stroke: Journal of the American Heart

Association (news - web sites), the investigators determined that women who

carried a specific type of autoantibody, known as an antiphospholipid

antibody, were 87% more likely than others to experience stroke. However,

strokes are so rare in young women that even those with antiphospholipid

antibodies still have a very low risk of stroke.

About 42% of stroke patients had an antiphospholipid antibody, compared with

28% of healthy women who did not have a stroke.

In an interview with Reuters Health, Brey explained that such autoantibodies

can cause problems in the body by forming blood clots. Women who carry them

also appear to have an increased risk of miscarriage, she noted, resulting

from clots that form in the placenta. Similarly, the increased risk of

stroke stems from a higher risk of forming blood clots in the brain, she

added.

Brey noted that young women are not the only people who carry

autoantibodies, and previous studies have shown that men and older women

with these substances are also at increased risk of stroke.

However, she added, some investigators suspect that autoantibodies

themselves do not damage the body, but rather exert their effects only on

blood vessels that are already damaged by factors such as high cholesterol,

or high blood pressure.

" So keeping as healthy as possible is extremely important " for all

autoantibody carriers, Brey advised.

SOURCE: Stroke 2002;33.