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(Stroke. 2002;33:2086.)
© 2002 American Heart Association, Inc.

Original Contributions

Linoleic Acid, Other Fatty Acids, and the Risk of Stroke

Hiroyasu Iso, MD; Shinichi Sato, MD; Utako Umemura, PhD; Minako Kudo; Kazuko Koike, PhD; Akihiko Kitamura, MD; Hironori Imano, MD; Tomonori Okamura, MD; Yoshihiko Naito, MD Takashi Shimamoto, MD

From the Department of Public Health Medicine, Institute of Community Medicine, University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki-ken (H.I., M.K.); Osaka Medical Center for Health Science and Promotion, Osaka (S.S., A.K., H.I., Y.N., T.O., T.S.); Tokyo Bunka Junior College, Tokyo (U.U.); and Center for Medical Science, Ibaraki Prefectural University of Health Science, Ibaraki-ken (K.K.), Japan.

Correspondence to Dr Hiroyasu Iso, Department of Public Health Medicine, Institute of Community Medicine, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Tennodai, Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki-ken 305-8575, Japan. E-mail fvgh5640{at}mb.infoweb.ne.jp

Background and Purpose— The role of serum fatty acids as a risk factor for stroke and stroke subtypes is largely unknown.

Methods— A prospective nested case-control study of Japanese 40 to 85 years of age was conducted through the use of frozen serum samples from 7450 participants in cardiovascular risk surveys collected from 1984 to 1989 for 1 community and 1989 to 1992 for the other 2 communities. By the end of 1998, we identified 197 incident strokes whose subtypes were confirmed by imaging studies. Three controls per case were selected by matching for sex, age, community, year of serum storage, and fasting status.

Results— Compared with controls, total (n=197), hemorrhagic (n=75), and ischemic (n=122) strokes had similar proportions of n3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, lower proportions of linoleic and arachidonic acids, and higher proportions of saturated and monosaturated acids, determined by gas chromatography. The multivariate odds ratios associated with a 1-SD increase in linoleic acid (5%) after adjustment for hypertension, diabetes, serum total cholesterol, and other cardiovascular risk factors were 0.72 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.59 to 0.89] for total stroke, 0.66 (95% CI, 0.49 to 0.88) for ischemic stroke, 0.63 (95% CI, 0.46 to 0.88) for lacunar infarction, and 0.81 (95% CI, 0.59 to 1.12) for hemorrhagic stroke. The respective odds ratios for saturated fatty acids (4%) were 1.13 (95% CI, 1.05 to 1.65), 1.35 (95% CI, 1.01 to 1.79), 1.44 (95% CI, 1.03 to 2.01), and 1.21 (95% CI, 0.82 to 1.80). Further adjustment for other fatty acids attenuated these relations, but the relation between linoleic acid and risk of ischemic stroke remained statistically significant.

Conclusions— A higher intake of linoleic acid may protect against ischemic stroke, possibly through potential mechanisms of decreased blood pressure, reduced platelet aggregation, and enhanced deformability of erythrocyte cells.

Key Words: fatty acids • fatty acids, unsaturated • follow-up studies • linoleic acid • stroke

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