• Centers and Departments
• Back to Cardiovascular Medicine
• Diseases and Conditions
• Angina
• Arrhythmias
• Cancer-Related Heart Disease
• Coronary Artery Disease
• Diabetic Heart Disease
• Familial Heart Diseases
• Heart Attack
• Heart Failure
• Pericardial Disease or Pericarditis
• Peripheral Artery Disease
• Stroke
  • Signs and Symptoms
  • Risk Factors
  • Causes
  • Diagnosis
  • Treatments
  • Physicians and Services
• Valve Disease
• Women's Cardiovascular Disease

Risk Factors

There are a number of risk factors that can increase your chances of having a stroke. They include:

• High blood pressure
  
• Atrial fibrillation, an irregular heart rhythm
  
• High cholesterol, particularly low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol
  
• Carotid artery disease
  
• Aneurysm
  
• Coronary artery disease
  
• Prior stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA)
  
• Arteriovenous malformation (AVM)
  
• Smoking
  
• Diabetes
  
• Obesity
  
• Elevated levels of homocysteine, an amino acid, in your blood
  
• Patent foramen ovale (PFO), an abnormal opening of the atrial septum, the thin membrane that separates the left and right sides of the heart's upper chambers or atria
  
• Family history of stroke or TIA
  
• Age 55 or older