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Asians tend to have tiny strokes that speed up onset of illness
STROKES affect Asians and Caucasians differently, a Singapore study has found. Unlike Western patients - who are likely to suffer one major stroke that paralyses them – Asians tend to have several small strokes. Of the 150 people tracked over three years, 31 per cent suffered these strokes, which are sometimes not even noticeable. This sped up the onset of dementia in these patients, who were aged 55 to 60. By contrast, a German study in 2004 found only 5 per cent of those studied suffered the tiny strokes.
Researcher Nagaendran Kandiah, a consultant neurologist from the National Neuroscience Institute, said: “These are known as silent strokes, that are so small you do not notice any symptoms. “But over time, the damage adds up. They reduce blood flow to the brain, leading to memory loss, confusion, and other signs of dementia.” Of the patients in the Singapore study, 88 per cent were Chinese and the rest Malay or Indian.
Vascular dementia - the type caused by strokes - is one of the most common forms of dementia, ranking second only to Alzheimer’s. A 2005 survey found more than 22,000 people in Singapore had been diagnosed with dementia. This number is expected to grow to 58,000 by 2030, Dr Nagaendran said.
A consortium of medical institutions from across the region has been formed to look further at dementia among South-east Asians, using a bigger base of patients. Called the South-east Asian Neurocognitive Research and Training Consortium, the group hopes to transform its findings into practical ways of caring for patients and push new discoveries.
“With the grouping, we will be able to look at a bigger base of different races in this region, including Malays and Indians, in a multicentre study,” Dr Nagaendran told The Straits Times. The group’s members met for the first time yesterday to work out what data is available and what is needed. The consortium is officially launched today at the 2nd Singapore International Neurocognitive Symposium held in Hilton Singapore, with more than 300 local and overseas participants taking part in the two-day event.
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