Inflammation and Stroke Risk: A New Target for Prevention

Stroke ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter J. Kelly ◽  
Robin Lemmens ◽  
Georgios Tsivgoulis

New therapeutic approaches are required for secondary prevention of residual vascular risk after stroke. Diverse sources of evidence support a causal role for inflammation in the pathogenesis of stroke. Randomized controlled trials of anti-inflammatory agents have reported benefit for secondary prevention in patients with coronary disease. We review the data from observational studies supporting a role for inflammation in pathogenesis of stroke, overview randomized controlled trials of anti-inflammatory therapy in cardiac disease and discuss the potential implications for stroke prevention therapy.

Author(s):  
Tanakal Wongwarawipat ◽  
Nikolaos Papageorgiou ◽  
Dimitrios Bertsias ◽  
Gerasimos Siasos ◽  
Dimitris Tousoulis

Background and Objective: Atherosclerosis is characterized by a chronic low-grade inflammatory process which can result in atherothrombosis and a number of cardiovascular diseases (CVD). It is believed to be caused by multiple processes that involve inflammation and immunity. Mediterranean Diet (MedD) has been discovered to possess anti-inflammatory properties and associated with a reduction in the CVD risk and mortality. Its main component, extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO), is believed to be largely responsible for these effects and therefore, has been investigated in various studies. The present review article aims to summarize the available literature on the antiinflammatory and cardio-protective effects of EVOO. Methods: A search based on the key concepts “olive oil”, “atherosclerosis”, “inflammation” and “cardiovascular disease” was performed to retrieve relevant studies and articles on the association between the consumption of EVOO and the levels of inflammatory biomarkers as well as CVD incidence and mortality from online databases; Pubmed, Embase and Cochrane Library. Results: Consumption of EVOO is associated with a reduction in inflammatory biomarkers and molecules implicated in atherosclerosis as well as CVD incidence and mortality as well as other complications such as heart failure and atrial fibrillation. Moreover, these anti-inflammatory and cardioprotective effects of EVOO are mostly attributable to its high content of polyphenol molecules. Conclusion: Currently available evidence supports the anti-inflammatory and cardio-protective roles of EVOO. However, there is limited amount of available randomized controlled trials especially lacking those investigating the use of EVOO as secondary prevention, heterogeneity of study design, limited generalization to wide population groups, and inability to determine the minimum intake of EVOO required to clinically achieve the anti-inflammatory and cardioprotective effects. Therefore, more highquality randomized controlled trials still need to be carried out to overcome these challenges to further assess the health benefits of EVOO consumption and potentially translate it into clinical practice as primary or secondary prevention of atherosclerosis-related conditions.


2013 ◽  
Vol 39 (6) ◽  
pp. 1230-1241 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masahiro Nitta ◽  
Taishiro Kishimoto ◽  
Norbert Müller ◽  
Mark Weiser ◽  
Michael Davidson ◽  
...  

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
John P.A. Ioannidis

Importance. COVID-19 has resulted in massive production, publication and wide dissemination of clinical studies trying to identify effective treatments. However, several widely touted treatments failed to show effectiveness in large well-done randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Objective. To evaluate for COVID-19 treatments that showed no benefits in subsequent large RCTs how many of their most-cited clinical studies had declared favorable results for these interventions. Methods. Scopus (last update December 23, 2021) identified articles on lopinavir-ritonavir, hydroxycholoroquine/azithromycin, remdesivir, convalescent plasma, colchicine or interferon (index interventions) that represented clinical trials and that had received >150 citations. Their conclusions were assessed and correlated with study design features. The ten most recent citations for the most-cited article on each index intervention were examined on whether they were critical to the highly-cited study. Altmetric scores were also obtained. Findings. 40 articles of clinical studies on these index interventions had received >150 citations (7 exceeded 1,000 citations). 20/40 (50%) had favorable conclusions and 4 were equivocal. Highly-cited articles with favorable conclusions were rarely RCTs while those without favorable conclusions were mostly RCTs (3/20 vs 15/20, p=0.0003). Only 1 RCT with favorable conclusions had sample size >160. Citation counts correlated strongly with Altmetric scores, in particular news items. Only 9 (15%) of 60 recent citations to the most highly-cited studies with favorable or equivocal conclusions were critical to the highly-cited study. Conclusion. Many clinical studies with favorable conclusions for largely ineffective COVID-19 treatments are uncritically heavily cited and disseminated. Early observational studies and small randomized trials may cause spurious claims of effectiveness that get perpetuated.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dana Abdelrahim ◽  
MoezAlIslam E. Faris ◽  
Mohamed Hassanein ◽  
Ayman Z. Shakir ◽  
Ayesha M. Yusuf ◽  
...  

Ramadan is the 9th month of the lunar calendar during which Muslims abstain from food and drink between dawn and sunset for 30 consecutive days. Ramadan fasting is observed by all healthy Muslim adults, as well many Muslims with type 2 diabetes (T2DM). Hypoglycemic events (HE) are a serious complication associated with diabetes management and are associated with increased cardiovascular disease risk. Conflicting results have been reported concerning the incidence of HE among people with T2DM observing Ramadan fasting. This review summarizes available scientific evidence on the occurrence of HE and the effects of different moderators on the incidence of HE among patients with T2DM during Ramadan. We conducted a systematic review of available observational studies and randomized controlled trials (RCTs) for patients with T2DM who fasted during Ramadan, with HE as the primary outcome. Ten databases were searched for relevant studies from inception until October 31, 2020. In total, 68 studies (35 RCTs and 33 observational studies) met the inclusion criteria. Non-sulfonylureas hypoglycemic medications showed superior effects in lowering the incidence of HE over sulfonylureas hypoglycemic medications. Variable moderators were associated with experiencing HE during Ramadan in both observational studies and RCTs, including sex, geographical location, body anthropometric indicators, season, dietary behaviors, fasting duration, time since diagnosis, and pre-fasting education. This comprehensive systematic review covered the largest number of observational and clinical studies investigating the impact of Ramadan on HE among patients with T2DM. The study highlights the significance of different moderators that influence the effect of Ramadan fasting on HE, including dietary behaviors, fasting time duration, sex, season, country, pre-fasting education, age, and time since diagnosis. The study also highlighted the impact of different hypoglycemic medications on HE and noted the superiority of non-sulfonylureas over sulfonylureas hypoglycemic medications in lowering the risk for hypoglycemia in people with T2DM during Ramadan fasting.


2010 ◽  
Vol 88 ◽  
pp. S3-S9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenying Yang ◽  
Alexey Zilov ◽  
Pradana Soewondo ◽  
Ole Molskov Bech ◽  
Fawzia Sekkal ◽  
...  

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