ROCHESTER, MINN. -- A new, population-based study from Mayo Clinic has identified diabetes as a risk factor for having an aneurysm in a certain location of the brain arteries, (posterior circulation aneurysms) and prior pregnancy as a risk factor contributing to multiple aneurysms.
The study looked at the medical records of 270 people who were residents of Olmsted County, Minn. who had intracranial aneurysms detected between 1965 and 1995. Various risk factors were analyzed in the study including gender, age, smoking history, alcohol-use history, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, pregnancy history, and aspirin use.
"In patients with diabetes mellitus, 20 percent of aneurysms were located in the back of the brain as compared to nine percent of aneurysms in people without diabetes," says Robert D. Brown, M.D., a Mayo Clinic neurologist. "We also found that among all people that had an aneurysm, women who had a pregnancy in the past were at increased risk of having multiple aneurysms compared to others."
"By identifying risk factors for various aneurysmal features, we can better detect and treat aneurysms in patients in whom we are evaluating for, and treating an aneurysm" says Dr. Brown.
Aneurysms are found in approximately two percent of the population, or six million people in the United States.