Blood type and stroke

A new study has found a link between a person’s blood type and risk of premature stroke.

As it turned out, the owners of blood type A have a 16% higher risk of early stroke (before 60 years of age). This conclusion was made by a group of American scientists after the completion of a scientific study conducted in the United States. They argue that a person’s blood type is associated with an increased or decreased risk of early stroke. For example, type O has the lowest risk, and type A has the highest.

An important discovery can lead to new methods for predicting and preventing a dangerous disease in people under 60, because stroke has been rapidly “getting younger” in recent years.

Led by professors Steven Kittner and Braxton Mitchell, researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine analyzed data from 48 studies involving almost 17,000 people with ischemic stroke (5,825 of them under 60 years of age) and 576,353 people without stroke. The researchers published their results in the journal Neurology of the American Academy of Neurology.

The study showed that blood type A increases the risk of early stroke before age 60 by 16%, while at the same time, people with type O have a 12% lower risk than people with other blood types. Professor Mitchell says:

“Blood types other than O have previously been associated with risk of early stroke. The results of our meta-analysis show a stronger association between these blood types and early stroke compared with stroke after 60 years, and this risk is mainly related to the group blood A.

The researchers found that stroke survivors before age 60 were more likely to have an A blood type and less likely to have an O blood type than those who had a stroke after age 60 and never had a stroke: 48% of people with an early stroke had a blood type And compared to 45% of those who had a stroke after age 60, and 44% of those who never had a stroke. Also, 35% of people with a stroke before age 60 had an O blood type compared to 39% of people with a stroke after age 60 and 41% of those who never had one.

The researchers emphasized, however, that the increased risk for blood type A is very small, so people with this blood type should not be afraid of a high risk of premature stroke and undergo unnecessary additional medical tests. Dr. Kittner notes:

“We don’t yet know why blood type A is at higher risk, but it’s likely due to clotting factors such as platelets and cells on the surface of blood vessels, as well as proteins circulating in the blood that play a role. in the development of thrombi.

Previous research has shown that people with blood type A have a slightly higher risk of developing blood clots in their lower extremities (deep vein thrombosis).

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