Recent Alcohol Consumption, Cigarette Smoking, and Cerebral Infarction in Young Adults

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The role of recent heavy drinking of alcohol as a risk factor for ischemic brain infarction is unclear. We investigated this problem in young adults, in whom even a thorough workup often fails to reveal any predisposing factor. METHODS: This was a hospital-based case-control study comprising 75 consecutive subjects aged 16 to 40 years with first-ever ischemic brain infarction and 133 control subjects from the same hospital who were group-matched with the case patients for age, sex, day of the onset of symptoms, and acuteness of disease onset. RESULTS: Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that alcohol intake exceeding 40 g of ethanol within the 24 hours preceding disease onset was a significant independent risk factor for brain infarction among both men (odds ratio [OR], 6.0; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.8 to 20.3) and women (OR, 7.8; 95% CI, 1.0 to 60.8). Cigarette smoking was not found to be an independent risk factor in the model, whereas among men arterial hypertension was (OR, 6.2; 95% CI, 1.5 to 24.7). CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that very recent alcohol drinking, particularly drinking for intoxication, may trigger the onset of brain infarction in young adults and that there might be a variety of mechanisms behind this effect.