Silent s trokes are called silent because they seldome produce symptoms, however; a recent study alludes to the fact that these silent strokes may be five times more common than a full blown stroke in persons under the age of 65 years old and are not uncommon in persons under the age of 50.
The Boston University Study performed MRI's on 1,059 people and then followed 925 of those who showed no evidence of silent cerebral infarcts. After five years researchers found that silent strokes existed in just over ten percent of the study population. Full blown strokes were only evident in 1.5 percent of the population. The incidence os silent stroke was five times higher in persons under 65 years of age. Approximately 2.4 percent of persons under 50 showed evidence of having a silent stroke.
While silent strokes cause no discernable symptoms, the effects of the strokes can be seen on MRI. Identifying patients who are at risk for silent strokes may prevent the person from having a full blown stroke if proper prevention measures are undertaken. Those measures include smoking cessation and controll of blood pressure, both risk factors for full blown strokes.
Professionals are not recommending that everyone have an MRI and state that more studies are needed.
