Fatty acid dietary intake and the risk of ischaemic stroke: a multicentre case-control study

A low dietary intake of unsaturated fatty acids has been found in male patients with stroke as compared with controls in Italy, and a high consumption of meat has been associated with an increased risk of stroke in Australia. We present a case-control study, comparing the unsaturated and saturated fatty acids content of red cell membranes (which reflects the dietary intake of saturated and unsaturated fats) in 89 patients with ischaemic stroke and 89 controls matched for age and sex. In univariate analysis, besides hypertension, atrial fibrillation, ischaemic changes in ECG and hypercholesterolaemia, stroke patients showed a lower level of oleic acid (P = 0.000), but a higher level of eicosatrienoic acid (P = 0.009). Conditional logistic regression (dependent variable: being a case) showed that the best model included atrial fibrillation, hypertension, oleic acid and eicosatrienoic acids. These results confirm a possible protective role of unsaturated fatty acids against vascular diseases; however, we did not find any difference in the content of omega3 acids, which have been considered in the past to protect against coronary heart disease. We conclude that the preceding diet of patients with ischaemic stroke may be poor in unsaturated fatty acids (namely, oleic acid), and this defect is independent of other vascular risk factors. Only further studies will show whether changes in diet and/or supplement of unsaturated fatty acids might reduce the incidence of ischaemic stroke.