title: Parental causes of death in primary intracerebral haemorrhage.
abstract: There are many reports of familial aggregation in stroke. Previously, examining parental causes of death, we found no evidence for familial risk in stroke once socioeconomic and socioenvironmental factors were controlled for. However, the number of patients with primary intracerebral haemorrhage (PICH) was small in this sample and we could not exclude a moderate effect of familial factors in this important subgroup. We therefore matched all cases with PICH on the Lothian Stroke Register with 2 controls per case of the same sex, born in the same year, district, and whose fathers had the same occupation. Presence on parental death certificates of cerebrovascular disease, other vascular disease, bronchial carcinoma, hypertension, diabetes mellitus and other causes of death was recorded. No significant difference in risk was found for cases with parental cerebrovascular disease (OR 0.75, 95% CI 0.40-1.40). Other forms of vascular disease in parents were not associated with significant risk either (OR 0.93, 95% CI 0.51-1.68). We conclude that familial factors do not contribute substantially to risk in most cases of PICH.
authors.affiliation: Geriatric Medicine Unit, Edinburgh University, Edinburgh, UK. John.Starr@ed.ac.uk
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Starr
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rush
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Dennis
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002423:Cause of Death; D002543:Cerebral Hemorrhage / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000235:genetics; D005192:Family Health; D005260:Female; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008423:Maternal Age; D008875:Middle Aged; D016017:Odds Ratio; D010290:Parents; D010331:Paternal Age; D012042:Registries; D012307:Risk Factors