Two recent studies strengthened the case that mild traumatic brain injury can increase a person’s risk of stroke.
In Taiwan, a group of researchers used a health insurance claims database to identify patients with mild TBI and patients with ischemic stroke. The study controlled for multiple comorbidities, including diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, atrial fibrillation and other stroke risk factors. Based on the administrative data, mild TBI is a significant independent risk factor for ischemic stroke, with an adjusted hazard ratio of 1.46. Results were published in the Scandinavian Journal of Trauma, Resuscitation and Emergency Medicine.
Separately, a group of U.S. researchers studied the link between coated-platelets and mild TBI. Coated-platelets are specialized procoagulants that are increased in patients with large-artery ischemic stroke. These procoagulant cells are also associated with an increased risk of stroke recurrence.
The U.S. investigators compared 40 military veterans with mild TBI to a control group. The study found that coated-platelet levels are significantly higher in individuals with mild TBI, regardless of time since injury. The results were published in the Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation. “These data suggest a link to previous findings of increased stroke risk and chronic inflammation among individuals who sustained a TBI,” according to the paper.
