Heart complications after a stroke increase the risk of future cardiovascular events
Ischemic stroke is the most common type of stroke — accounting for 87% of all strokes — and occurs when blood flow to the brain is blocked. After a stroke, people often have cardiovascular complications, known as stroke-heart syndrome. Heart complications include acute coronary syndrome, angina (chest pain), heart rhythm issues such as atrial fibrillation, arrhythmia and ventricular fibrillation; heart attack; heart failure or Takotsubo syndrome (broken heart syndrome), a type of stress-induced temporary enlargement of a part of the heart that impacts its ability to pump effectively. These conditions increase the risk of disability or death in the short term, yet the long-term consequences for people with stroke-heart syndrome is unknown.
“We know heart disease and stroke share similar risk factors, and there’s a two-way relationship between the risk of stroke and heart disease. For example, heart conditions such as atrial fibrillation increase the risk of stroke, and stroke also increases the risk of heart conditions,” said Benjamin J.R. Buckley, Ph.D., lead author of the study and a postdoctoral research fellow in preventive cardiology at the Liverpool Centre for Cardiovascular Science, University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom. “We wanted to know how common newly diagnosed heart complications are after a stroke and, importantly, whether stroke-heart syndrome is associated with increased risk of long-term major adverse events.”
Researchers analyzed the medical records of more than 365,000 adults treated for ischemic stroke at more than 50 health care sites predominantly in the United States, between 2002 and 2021. People who were diagnosed with stroke-heart complications within four weeks after a stroke were matched to an equal number of stroke survivors who did not have these heart complications within four weeks (the control group).
After adjusting for potential confounding factors, such as age, sex and race/ethnicity, and comparing the stroke survivors who had new heart complications to those who did not, the analysis found:
“I was particularly surprised by how common stroke-heart syndrome was and the high rate of recurrent stroke in all subgroups of adults with stroke-heart syndrome” Buckley said. “This means that this is a high-risk population where we should focus more secondary prevention efforts.”
The study’s results build on the understanding of the two-way link between the brain and the heart and extend this understanding to long-term health outcomes. “We are working on additional research to determine how stroke-heart syndrome may be better predicted,” Buckley said.
“We also need to develop and implement treatments to improve outcomes for people with stroke-heart syndrome,” Buckley said. “For example, comprehensive exercise-based rehabilitation may be helpful after a stroke, so for people with stroke and newly developed heart complications, it should also be beneficial, maybe even more so. I think this is an interesting area for future research.”
Study limitations include that it is a retrospective analysis and knowing whether the heart complications diagnosed following an ischemic stroke were caused by stroke or rather contributed to the stroke, is unclear.
“This research underscores why it’s so important for neurologists and cardiologists to work hand-in-hand with their patients and each other to understand why the first stroke occurred and perform a comprehensive assessment to identify new risk factors for another stroke and for cardiovascular disease that may require initiation of prevention therapies,” said Lee H. Schwamm, M.D., volunteer chair of the American Stroke Association Advisory Committee and the C. Miller Fisher Chair in Vascular Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. “The American Stroke Association recommends a personalized secondary stroke prevention plan for every stroke survivor.”
Co-authors are Stephanie L. Harrison, Ph.D.; Andrew Hill, M.B.Ch.B.; Paula Underhill; Deirdre A. Lane, Ph.D.; and Gregory Y.H. Lip, M.D.