The study also found routine childhood vaccines may decrease the risk of stroke<\/strong>.<\/p>\n “Parents should be reassured that while the risk was increased, the overall risk of stroke among children is still extremely low<\/strong>,” said Jos\u00e9 Biller, MD, with the Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine in Chicago, author of a corresponding editorial and a Fellow with the American Academy of Neurology.<\/p>\n “It is possible that changes in the body as a result of these infections, such as inflammation and dehydration could tip the balance<\/strong> in a child who is already at a higher risk for stroke. Parents should not be alarmed if their child has a cold that it will lead to a stroke.”<\/p>\n For the study, researchers reviewed the medical charts and conducted parent interviews of 355 children under 18<\/strong> diagnosed with a stroke and 354 stroke-free children of similar ages. Scientists looked at whether the children had been exposed to infection and also their vaccine history.<\/p>\n Of the participants, 18 percent of the children with stroke had an infection the week before the stroke occurred and 3 percent of the children who did not have a stroke had an infection the week before the interview with researchers. The children with a stroke were six times more likely to have an infection in the previous week than those who did not have a stroke.<\/p>\n The researchers found that the risk of stroke was increased only for infections in the prior week<\/strong>, indicating that the effect of infection on stroke risk is short-lived. Infections that occurred a month or six months prior were not associated with an increased risk.<\/p>\n Children who were poorly vaccinated were at a higher risk of stroke than those who had most or all of their routine vaccinations<\/strong>. Children who had received some, few, or none of their routine vaccinations were seven times more likely to have a stroke than those who received most or all of their vaccines. Eight percent of the children with strokes were poorly vaccinated, compared to 1 percent of those who did not have strokes.<\/p>\n “If our results hold up in further studies, controlling infections like colds and flu through hand-washing and vaccines may be a strategy for preventing stroke in children<\/strong>,” said study author Heather J. Fullerton, MD, MAS, with UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital San Francisco.<\/p>\n Fullerton noted that this study expands on an earlier study by her group with similar findings<\/strong>. The current study has a larger sample size, broader geographic representation, prospective enrollment and central review of brain imaging to confirm the stroke cases.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) media release: Stroke is very rare in children, but colds, flu and other minor infections may temporarily increase stroke risk in children, according… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[339,9,346],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18333"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18333"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18413,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18333\/revisions\/18413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"autism](\"http:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/autism-lonely-child.jpg\")
<\/a>Stroke is very rare in children, but colds, flu and other minor infections may temporarily increase stroke risk in children<\/strong>, according to a study published in the September 30, 2015, online issue of Neurology\u00ae<\/em>, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.<\/p>\n