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[Passive smoking as a cerebrovascular risk factor].

INTRODUCTION
Stroke is one of the main causes of morbidity and mortality in developed countries today. Smoking is a risk factor that is associated with arteriosclerotic disease.


AIM
To evaluate the risk of having a stroke associated to both active and passive smoking in a case-control study.


PATIENTS AND METHODS
A case-control study was conducted which included 151 stroke patients who were admitted to hospital in the Neurology Service at the Hospital General Universitario in Alicante over a 12-month period. The control group (302) was obtained from patients who visited the emergency department at the hospital with no history of strokes and who reported clinical signs and symptoms that were not compatible with a stroke. The cases and controls were paired according to age and sex, including two controls of the same sex and whose ages were within a year of that of each case which was obtained.


RESULTS
The mean age of the patients was 70.6 years (range: 59-81 years). Males predominated in the sample (57.6%). Stroke patients had a significantly higher percentage of hypertension, peripheral arterial disease, heart disease and dyslipidemia than the control group. The most frequently affected vascular territory was the carotid (33.8%). The most frequent presenting symptom of the stroke was motor syndrome together with language disorders (39.4%). The risk of suffering a stroke associated to active smoking was 1.40 (CI 95% = 0.91-2.15) and in the case of passive smoking it was 1.45 (CI 95% = 0.82-2.58).


CONCLUSIONS
The findings from this study suggest there is a relevant association between environmental exposure to tobacco smoke and increased vascular risk (which confirms other results that have been published in the literature) and stress how important it is for non-smokers to find smoke-free zones.