
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, February 21, 1991                   TAG: 9102210261
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: SAN FRANCISCO                                LENGTH: Short

WOMEN'S FATAL-STROKE RATE MAY BE INCREASING

The U.S. death rate from strokes declined 33 percent between 1978 and 1988, but strokes remain the third-leading cause of death and may be increasing in women, the American Heart Association said Wednesday.

About 150,000 Americans died from strokes in 1988, the latest year for which figures are available, the association said. Sixty percent of those deaths were in women.

"There is some evidence that the number of women experiencing stroke is rising," said Dr. Hermes Kontos, a cardiologist at the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond.

Researchers have no explanation for the possible increase in strokes in women.

- Associated Press

by CNB