The cold and other infections can temporarily increase the risk of stroke in children, according to a new UCSF-led study.
Researchers reviewed a Kaiser Permanente database of 2.5 million children, 102 of whom had had an ischemic stroke without a major infection like sepsis or meningitis. They then reviewed those children's medical records for minor infections up to two years before their strokes. As a control group, researchers used a group of 306 children who had not had strokes.
The review found the risk of stroke was increased in a three-day time frame from the minor infection, or a period of acute inflammation from the infection. Ten of the 102 patients who had a stroke visited a physician for an infection within three days of the stroke, while just two of the control group children had an infection during the same time period.
"The infections are acting as a trigger in children who are likely predisposed to stroke," said senior study author Heather Fullerton, MD, pediatric vascular neurologist and medical director of the Pediatric Brain Center at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital San Francisco. "Infection prevention is key for kids who are at risk for stroke, and we should make sure those kids are getting vaccinated against whatever infections — such as flu — that they can."
The study is in a recent online issue of Neurology.