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Homocysteine and stroke

Part of: Bespoke shallow archive Weizmann

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2007

K Zaw ,
M T Hasan ,
B Bhowmick ,
P B Khanna  and
E A Freeman
K Zaw*
Affiliation:
County Hospital, Griffithstown, Pontypool, Wales, UK
M T Hasan
Affiliation:
Caerphilly Miners' Hospital, Caerphilly, Wales, UK
B Bhowmick
Affiliation:
County Hospital, Griffithstown, Pontypool, Wales, UK
P B Khanna
Affiliation:
Nevill Hall Hospital, Abergavenny, Wales, UK
E A Freeman
Affiliation:
Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport, Gwent, Wales, UK
*
Address for correspondence: Khin Zaw, Torfaen Intermediate Care, County Hospital Coed-Y-Gric, Griffithstown, Pontypool, NP4 5YA, Wales, UK.
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Extract

Interest in homocysteine's role in vascular disease was stimulated by the paper of McCully (1969) in which, based on autopsy evidence of extensive arterial thrombosis in two children with elevated plasma homocysteine concentrations and homocystinuria, he proposed that elevated plasma homocysteine (hyperhomocysteinaemia) can cause atherosclerotic vascular disease. A meta-analysis of subsequent prospective observational studies concluded that elevated homocysteine is indeed a modest independent predictor of ischaemic heart disease and stroke risk in healthy populations with a 25% reduction in serum homocysteine concentration, a reduction of approximately 3 micromol per litre (μmol/l) being associated with a 19% lower risk of stroke (odds ratio, 0.81; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.69 – 0.95). In the nationally representative sample of US adults, elevated homocysteine concentration was independently associated with an increased likelihood of non-fatal stroke in both black and white adults. In this article, the current concepts relating homocysteine to ischaemic stroke are reviewed.

Type
Clinical geriatrics
Information
Reviews in Clinical Gerontology , Volume 17 , Issue 1 , February 2007 , pp. 33 - 38
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

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