The role of weather conditions and normal level of air pollution in appearance of stroke in the region of Southeast Europe

• Published in: Acta neurologica Belgica 2018-06, Vol.118 (2), p.267-275
• Main Authors: Knezovic, Marijana, Pintaric, Sanja, Jelavic, Marko Mornar, Kes, Vanja Basic, Nesek, Visnja, Bogovic, Sinisa, Cvetkovic, Bruno, Pintaric, Hrvoje
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Medicine/Public Health; Neurology; Neuroradiology; Neurosciences; Original Article
• ISSN: 0300-9009; 2240-2993
• DOI: 10.1007/s13760-018-0885-0

We investigated correlation between the normal level of air pollution, weather conditions and stroke occurrence in the region of Southeast Europe with a humid continental climate. This retrospective study included 1963 patients, 1712 (87.2%) with ischemic (IS) and 251 (12.8%) with hemorrhagic stroke (HS) admitted to emergency department. The number of patients, values of weather condition (meteorological parameters) [air temperature (°C), atmospheric pressure (kPa), relative humidity (%)] and concentrations of air pollutants [particulate matter (PM 10 ), nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ), ozone (O 3 )], were recorded and evaluated for each season (spring, summer, autumn, winter) during 2 years (July 2008–June 2010). The highest rate of IS was observed during spring (28.9%) ( p  = 0.0002) and HS in winter (33.9%) ( p  = 0.0006). We have found negative Spearman’s correlations (after Bonferroni adjustment for the multiple correlations) of the number of males with values of relative humidity (%) (day 0, rho = − 0.15), the total number of strokes (day 2, rho = − 0.12), females (day 2, rho = − 0.12) and IS (day 2, rho = − 0.13) with concentrations of PM 10 (µg/m 3 ), as well as negative correlations of the number of females (day 2, rho = − 0.12) and IS (day 2, rho = − 0.12) with concentrations of NO 2 (µg/m 3 ) (for all p