June 27, 2016 – Hydration and Stroke

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Anchor lead: People who are dehydrated at the time they have a stroke may have worse outcomes, Elizabeth Tracey reports

Dehydration may cause strokes to be more severe as well as result in more severe consequences of a stroke down the road, a two part Johns Hopkins study led by Mona Bahouth, a stroke expert, and colleagues has shown.

Bahouth: The study was conducted in two phases, there were about 180 patients in each phase of the study, so 360 total.  And in the first phase we looked at their outcome very early after their stroke, how did they do several days after the stroke happened, and we found that patients were in the worst category of functional change after their stroke. We then shifted in the next 180 patients to look at 3 month outcomes, and again, patients who were dehydrated at the time of their stroke seemed to do worse at 3 months.   :27

Bahouth says because the consequences of a stroke can be life-altering, finding any modifiable risk factors, especially those related to outcomes, have the potential to improve people’s lives.  She says the next step is to see whether rehydration is helpful.  At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.