Ocular Shingles Linked to Increased Risk of Stroke

For the study, researchers identified 658 people diagnosed with ocular shingles and 1974 without the infection. None of these people had a history of stroke at the beginning of the study. Ocular shingles is an infection of the eye and the skin around the eye caused by the same virus that causes chickenpox. About 10 to 20 percent of all people with shingles have ocular shingles.

During the one-year study, stroke developed in 8.1 percent of the people with shingles and 1.7 percent of the people without shingles.

The study found people with shingles were four-and-a-half times more likely to have a stroke compared to people without shingles. The results were the same regardless of age, gender, high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease and medications.

“Shingles may represent a marker for increased risk of stroke,” said Jau-Der Ho, MD, PhD, with Taipei Medical University in Taiwan.

The study also found the people with shingles were more likely to have ischemic stroke, such as a blood clot, and less likely to have hemorrhagic stroke, such as bleeding in the brain, compared to people without shingles.

“As we face an aging population with increased risk factors for stroke, the results of this study reinforce the importance of preventing stroke in older people who develop shingles,” said Gustavo A. Ortiz, MD, with the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine in Miami, who wrote an editorial accompanying the study and is a member of the American Academy of Neurology.

Antiviral drugs are used to treat ocular shingles. The researchers found that there was no difference in the risk of stroke between people who received antiviral drugs and those who did not.

Ortiz says further research is needed because the study did not account for stroke risk factors such as cigarette smoking. Also, the results are based on people in Taiwan, and there may be differences in stroke risk compared to other populations.

The American Academy of Neurology, an association of more than 22,000 neurologists and neuroscience professionals, is dedicated to promoting the highest quality patient-centered neurologic care. A neurologist is a doctor with specialized training in diagnosing, treating and managing disorders of the brain and nervous system such as Alzheimer’s disease, migraine, stroke, Parkinson’s disease, ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) and multiple sclerosis.

For more information about the American Academy of Neurology, visit http://www.aan.com

Media Contact

Angela M. Babb American Academy of Neurology

More Information:

http://www.aan.com

All latest news from the category: Health and Medicine

This subject area encompasses research and studies in the field of human medicine.

Among the wide-ranging list of topics covered here are anesthesiology, anatomy, surgery, human genetics, hygiene and environmental medicine, internal medicine, neurology, pharmacology, physiology, urology and dental medicine.

Back to home

Comments (0)

Write a comment

Newest articles

Lighting up the future

New multidisciplinary research from the University of St Andrews could lead to more efficient televisions, computer screens and lighting. Researchers at the Organic Semiconductor Centre in the School of Physics and…

Researchers crack sugarcane’s complex genetic code

Sweet success: Scientists created a highly accurate reference genome for one of the most important modern crops and found a rare example of how genes confer disease resistance in plants….

Evolution of the most powerful ocean current on Earth

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current plays an important part in global overturning circulation, the exchange of heat and CO2 between the ocean and atmosphere, and the stability of Antarctica’s ice sheets….

Partners & Sponsors