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Stroke is uncommon in young women, but the hypercoagulable state associated with pregnancy and the postpartum period confers excess risk for this debilitating event. Investigators used the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) to evaluate prevalence of hospitalization with stroke in pregnant women during 1994–1995 compared with that in 2006–2007 and to determine the role of hypertension and heart disease as stroke risk factors during pregnancy, delivery, and postpartum.
Most strokes occurred during labor and delivery in women aged 25 to 34. Rates of pregnancy-related strokes of any type rose by 47% among antenatal hospitalizations (from 0.15 to 0.22 per 1000 deliveries) and by 83% among postpartum hospitalizations (from 0.12 to 0.22 per 1000 del…