The fatty add composition of red blood cell membranes (which reflects dietary fat intake) was studied in 28 male patients with recent (<3 days) ischemic stroke and 56 matched controls. Fifteen fatty acids were measured by means of chromatographic analysis. Percentages of linoleic, 22:5, and 22:6 acids were significantly lower in red blood cell membranes of stroke patients than in those of matched controls. The results suggest that a low unsaturated fatty acid diet could be an independent risk factor for ischemic brain infarction. {Stroke 1987;18:575-578) I t is widely accepted that dietary fats have a role in the etiology of ischemic heart disese (IHD).' Patients with IHD appear to have a low linoleic acid content in their plasma cholesterol esters 2 as well as in adipose tissue.3 A low content of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) in serum phospholipids has been shown to be an independent risk factor for IHD. 4 Diets with a high PUFA: saturated fatty acids (SFA) ratio might reduce the risk of IHD through their effect of lowering plasma cholesterol concentration or, possibly, through an antithrombotic property of PUFA. 5 The limited role of hypercholesterolemia as a risk factor in cerebrovascular diseases (CVD) is well known.67 A low alimentary PUFA: SFA ratio was found in IHD patients, 8 but, as far as we are aware, no data are available on this aspect in patients with CVD.The composition of red blood cell membrane phospholipids reflects the type of fats eaten in the preceding weeks, and it is unlikely to change immediately after an acute event such as a stroke.8 Therefore, we studied the composition of red blood cell membrane phospholipids in patients with ischemic stroke and in matched controls to find out whether the type of fats consumed in these two groups was different.
Subjects and MethodsWe studied 28 consecutive male patients, aged 40-75, who had suffered a first-event ischemic stroke, defined as an acute focal neurologic deficit lasting > 24 hours that was attributed to ischemia on clinical grounds and confirmed by a computed tomography Address for reprints: Dr. Stefano Ricci, Istituto di Clinica Neurologica, University di Perugia, Via del Giochetto, 06100 Perugia, Italy.Received June 9, 1986; accepted December 22, 1986. (CT) scan within 3 days. We did not study women due to organizational difficulties. We excluded patients with myocardial infarction within the previous 3 months and also patients with other possible cardiac sources of emboli and without other known risk factors for cerebral ischemia (e.g., mitral stenosis with atrial fibrillation in a young, normotensive, normoglycemic patient). Each patient was matched with 2 controls (56 men matched for age ± 5 years, smoking habits, hypertension, and diabetes); these were male inpatients admitted to our hospital in the same period who were not suffering any acute vascular disease and had no stroke or myocardial infarction in their history. Men chosen as controls in this study suffered from a wide spectrum of diseases (tumors, epilepsy, infection...
