Air Pollution as a Trigger for Ischemic Stroke – Retrospective Analysis of Over 80-million-person Years of Follow-up (EP-PARTICLES study)

Air Pollution as a Trigger for Ischemic Stroke – Retrospective Analysis of Over 80-million-person Years of Follow-up (EP-PARTICLES study)

In recent years air pollution has become one of the most important nonclassical risk factors for cardiovascular diseases. Guidelines suggest that high-risk patients should avoid regions with high air pollution levels, however, there is a lack of research conducted in areas with low or moderate air pollution concentrations. The aim of the study was to analyze the effects of air pollution on ischemic stroke incidence and identify the most vulnerable age and sex groups. Moreover, we aim to assess, how region settings (such as density of population, alcohol or tobacco consumption, atrial fibrillation prevalence and CVD mortality) impact the effects of air pollution.

What are the main findings of our work?

Air pollution might act as a trigger for ischemic stroke, even at low concentrations. Young, active woman is the most vulnerable phenotype to air pollution. Harmful health habits seem to further increase the negative effects of air pollution. Furthermore, “survival bias” might contribute to the lower influence of air pollution in high cardiovascular diseases mortality areas. The prevalence of atrial fibrillation seems to not impact the effects of air pollution.

The results were presented at Young Investigator Award Session, the ESC Preventive Cardiology Congress 2024 in Athens, Greece.

Scroll to Top