Abstract
Objectives : It is known that cigarette smoking is associated with increased risk of both thrombotic and hemorrhagic stroke. However, in Korea, especially in the academic world of Korean Medicine, there is a lack of study about the relation between cigarette smoking and stroke. We carried out a case-control study to clarify the relation between cigarette smoking and stroke. Method : We interviewed 441 stroke patients (236 men, 205 women) as a case group and 432 non-stroke patients (208 men, 224 women) as a control group. We investigated the smoking pattern of all patients and stroke-subtype of the case group. Smoking pattern is classed into two (Class I), four (Class II) and five groups (Class III). Class I consists of current non-smokers and current smokers. Class II consists of non-smokers, former smokers, current light smokers and current heavy smokers. Class III consists of never smoked, secondhand smokers, former smokers, Current light smokers and current heavy smokers. Stroke-subtype consists of cerebral infarction and cerebral hemorrhage. Results : The percentage of current smokers of case group is higher significantly than that of control group. The number of cigarettes smoked per day is associated positively with the risk of stroke. According to our study, generally cigarette smoking is related with ischemic stroke. The percentage of secondhand smokers of the case group is lower than that of the control group. According to our study, characteristically secondhand smoking is associated with hemorrhagic stroke. Conclusions : From the above results we found that cigarette smoking is an important risk factor of stroke - especially cerebral infarction - and the number of cigarettes smoked per day is associated positively with the risk of stroke. Characteristically according to our study, secondhand smoking is associated with hemorrhagic stroke. Overall we conclude that cigarette smoking may be an important preventable factor for stroke.