Younger people are more susceptible to strokes

ST. LOUIS — Of all the things parents worry about happening to their children, strokes usually aren't one of them.

That's why Christina Lovett of Mattoon, Ill., and the family pediatrician thought her 10-year-old son, Josh, had the flu when he was vomiting and complaining of a severe headache in late January.

Five days later, Josh was having trouble walking. Brain scans revealed a series of strokes.

"I'm thinking all this time it's a virus," Lovett said last week in the therapy gym at St. Louis Children's Hospital, where Josh is recovering. "I thought (strokes) were just in adults."

Advanced age is still the most common risk factor for stroke, which occurs when the brain doesn't get enough oxygen because a blood vessel is blocked or ruptured. But doctors here and nationwide report seeing younger stroke patients.

The average age of stroke patients — 68 — declined by three years between 1995 and 2005. More than 7 percent of all first-time stroke patients are now younger than 45, according to data presented Wednesday at the International Stroke Conference in San Antonio, Texas.

The rate of strokes among people in their 20s, 30s and 40s has nearly doubled in recent years. The exact cause of the increase is unknown, but doctors speculate that concurrent rises in obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure could be to blame.

"This is just the beginning of this alarming trend," said Dr. Jin Moo Lee, director of the stroke section of neurology at Washington University. "Normally it takes on the order of decades for diabetes to wreak havoc on the blood vessels."

There isn't any evidence of a similar increase in pediatric strokes, which are rare and usually have different causes, such as congenital heart defects or drug reactions. In 20 to 25 percent of pediatric strokes, a risk factor can't be identified, doctors say.

CHILDREN CAN BE VICTIMS

About 9,000 children have strokes each year, according to the pediatric stroke program at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

There is a growing awareness that strokes can affect children, said Dr. Michael Noetzel, chief neurologist at St. Louis Children's Hospital.

"Strokes in the pediatric population are as common as pediatric brain tumors," Noetzel said.