Effects of Air Pollution on Acute Stroke Prognosis

Abstract

Background and Purpose: Air pollution is known to be associated with cardiovascular disease, but little is known about the relation of stroke occurence. We investigated the association between acute stroke incidence and air pollution. Methods: Files of the acute stroke patients between January 2000 and December 2003 were investigated retrospectively. Air pollution data were provided from the Department of the Environment (Malatya) for the same period. Exposure measurements were taken from 3 monitoring sites, which provide hourly measurements of total suspended particles and sulfur dioxide.Results: The effects of air pollutants on acute stroke mortality were statistically significant, whereas this was not the case for its subgroups (ischemic and hemorrhagic). We observed significant increased incidence for acute stroke mortality during November-April months besides increment in total suspended particulates and sulfur dioxideconcentrations. Conclusions: These findings indicate that air pollutants are significantlyassociated with acute stroke mortality, which suggests, air pollution induced the acute pathophysiological process in the cerebrovascular system.