
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, February 25, 1991                   TAG: 9102250342
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SAN FRANCISCO                                LENGTH: Medium

SMOKERS MORE LIKELY TO SUFFER DEADLY STROKE

Smokers who go through a pack of cigarettes a day or less have four times the chance of non-smokers of suffering a highly deadly form of stroke called subarachnoid hemorrhage, according to a new survey.

Researchers also found that a 50-year-old who smokes two packs of cigarettes a day has artery damage comparable to a light smoker 10 years older. The studies were discussed Saturday at the American Heart Association's annual meeting on strokes.

Dr. Robert Dempsey, a neurosurgeon at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, said researchers studying strokes used a special ultrasound scanner to determine the thickness of waxy deposits building up inside the carotid artery, one of the principal suppliers of blood to the brain.

These deposits can ultimately diminish or block blood flow to parts of the brain, causing strokes.

In examining 790 patients, Dempsey said researchers discovered that the thickness of the deposits, called plaques, was directly related to how much people smoked.

"Heavy smokers have much more plaque in their carotid arteries than non-smokers," Dempsey said.

Diabetes and high blood pressure were also linked to the formation of plaques, but smoking was a greater risk factor than either of those, he said.

The other study said those who smoked more than a pack a day had up to 11 times the risk of subarachnoid hemorrhages, which make up 7 percent of the 500,000 strokes suffered by Americans each year.

Dr. Will Longstreth, the study's author, said the risk is especially high within three hours of smoking a cigarette, and then it falls off gradually. But smokers continue to have a higher risk of this kind of stroke even years they give up cigarettes, he said.

"If you stop smoking now you're looking at a 10-year period of time until your risk is what it is in someone who's never smoked," said Longstreth, a neurologist at the University of Washington in Seattle.

His findings were based on a study of 149 stroke victims and 149 people of similar backgrounds who had not had strokes. He concluded that smoking is responsible for about 38 percent of all subarachnoid hemorrhages.

He said that more than 8,000 such strokes could be prevented each year in the United States with the elimination of smoking.

Several studies have identified smoking as a possible risk factor for strokes, but the link has not yet been shown as clearly as the link between smoking and heart disease, researchers said.

by CNB