Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #116542

Yu-Feng Chan, MD¹, Hosseinali Shahidi, MD², Marie-Carmel Elie, MD², David FE Stuhlmiller, MD², Van H. Dunn, MD MPH³, Susan Meehan⁴, Adnan I. Qureshi, MD⁵, Dimpi Kalira, MD², Bill Gauff⁶, and Ronald Low, MD¹. (1) Division of Emergency Medicine/ Department of Surgery, UMDNJ New Jersey Medical School, 150 Bergen Street, Room M219, Newark, NJ 07103, (2) Division of Emergency Medicine/ Department of Surgery, University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey - New Jersey Medical School, 150 Bergen Street, Room M219, Newark, NJ 07103, 8312277227, dkalira@hotmail.com, (3) New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, 125 Worth Street, Room 507, New York, NY 10013, (4) Division of Emergency Medicine/ Department of Surgery, NYC Health & Hospitals Corporation, 125 Worth Street, Room 507, New York, NY 10013, (5) Department of Neurology and Neurosciences, University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey - New Jersey Medical School, 90 Bergen Street, DOC - 8100, Newark, NJ 07103, (6) Department of Surgery/Division of Emergency Medicine, UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School, 185 South Orange Ave., Newark, NJ 07103

Objectives: To examine the relationship between changes in upper respiratory infection (URI) incidence, weather and pollution to the incidence of hemorrhagic stroke (HS).

Methods: A retrospective, observational study was performed using HS and URI incidence data from New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation. Weather data were obtained from the National Weather Service and pollution data from the Environmental Protection Agency. Sulfur dioxide data were first log-transformed to meet requirements for normality, and then analyzed with linear regression.

Results: There were 6355 HS during the 2922 study days (2.17 +/i 1.46 visits/day). Our best multivariate model shows 0.38 fewer visits on weekend days (p<0.0001), no independent effect of holidays, and 0.013 fewer HS for every increase in temperature (p=0.0002, CI=0.020-0.006). There is a suggested exacerbating effect of atmospheric sulfur dioxide (p=0.0333). The SBC increases when sulfur dioxide is included and the cp statistic of this 3 term model is 1.55. These latter two criteria, used to adjust for experiment-wise error rate, do not support its including sulfur dioxide in the model. The model R2 is 0.02, suggesting that these variables are associated with approximately 2% of the daily variation in HS count. Effects of atmospheric pressure or changes in atmospheric pressure were statistically insignificant.

Conclusions: With good statistical power, we found slight but statistically significant increases in HS with lower temperature. There may be an effect of sulfur dioxide air pollution, which is known to be associated with ischemic stroke. We found no effect of atmospheric pressure on HS.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant in this session will be able to

• Comprehend the relationships between pollution, weather, and hemorrhagic stroke
• Communicate the association of pollution and stroke incidence to patients

Keywords: Strokes, Air Quality

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.