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(Stroke. 2003;34:e89.)
© 2003 American Heart Association, Inc.

Research Reports

Familial Clustering of Stroke According to Proband Age at Onset of Presenting Ischemic Stroke

James F. Meschia, MD; Elizabeth J. Atkinson, MS; Peter C. O’Brien, PhD; Thomas G. Brott, MD; Robert D. Brown, Jr, MD John Hardy, PhD

From the Department of Neurology (J.F.M., T.G.B) and the Section of Pharmacology (J.H.), Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, Fla; and the Section of Biostatistics (E.J.A., P.C.O.) and the Department of Neurology (R.D.B.), Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn.

Reprint requests to James F. Meschia, MD, Dept of Neurology, 4500 San Pablo Rd, Jacksonville, FL 32224. E-mail meschia.james{at}mayo.edu

Background and Purpose— The magnitude of inherited risk of stroke may lessen with age, and this would have implications for optimizing genomic approaches to identifying genetic risk factors for stroke. We investigated the relationship between age and inherited risk of stroke.

Methods— Family histories of stroke were obtained in systematic interviews with 310 adult men and women with recent CT- or MR-confirmed ischemic stroke. Probability of stroke in first-degree relatives was analyzed by logistic regression, adjusting for sibship size.

Results— The probability of having a sibling with stroke increased as proband age at stroke presentation increased. Per decade increase in proband age, the odds ratio was 1.65 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.20 to 2.28; P=0.002) for a concordant sibling and 1.69 (95% CI, 1.15 to 2.49; P=0.008) for 2 first-degree relatives with a history of stroke.

Conclusions— Clustering of stroke was not greater in families with probands manifesting symptoms of stroke in earlier than later adulthood. The relationship between proband age and positive family history of stroke does not suggest an upper age-limit cutoff for genomewide linkage studies.

Key Words: age of onset • genetics • history • stroke, ischemic

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