title: Dietary potassium intake and risk of stroke: a dose-response meta-analysis of prospective studies.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Potassium intake has been inconsistently associated with risk of stroke. Our aim was to conduct a meta-analysis of prospective studies to assess the relation between potassium intake and stroke risk.
  
  
  METHODS
  Pertinent studies were identified by a search of PubMed from January 1966 through March 2011 and by reviewing the reference lists of retrieved articles. We included prospective studies that reported relative risks with 95% CIs of stroke for ≥3 categories of potassium intake or for potassium intake analyzed as a continuous variable. Study-specific results were pooled using a random-effects model.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Ten independent prospective studies, with a total of 8695 stroke cases and 268 276 participants, were included in the meta-analysis. We observed a statistically significant inverse association between potassium intake and risk of stroke. For every 1000-mg/day increase in potassium intake, the risk of stroke decreased by 11% (pooled relative risk, 0.89; 95% CI, 0.83 to 0.97). In the 5 studies that reported results for stroke subtypes, the pooled relative risks were 0.89 (95% CI, 0.81 to 0.97) for ischemic stroke, 0.95 (95% CI, 0.83 to 1.09) for intracerebral hemorrhage, and 1.08 (95% CI, 0.92 to 1.27) for subarachnoid hemorrhage.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Dietary potassium intake is inversely associated with risk of stroke, in particular ischemic stroke.
authors.affiliation: Division of Nutritional Epidemiology, National Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Box 210, SE-17177 Stockholm, Sweden. susanna.larsson@ki.se
authors.forename: Susanna C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Larsson
authors.forename: Nicola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Orsini
authors.forename: Alicja
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wolk
mesh_terms: D002545:Brain Ischemia / Q000209:etiology*; D006801:Humans; D017419:Potassium, Dietary / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012306:Risk; D012307:Risk Factors; D020521:Stroke / Q000209:etiology*
chemical_list: D017419:Potassium, Dietary