Causal mechanisms in stroke subtypes (360G-Wellcome-211082_Z_18_Z)

Stroke describes an insult to the brain that is caused by a disruption of blood flow. There are different subtypes of stroke, which may be subdivided by the cause of the disruption to blood flow. The mechanisms underlying different stroke subtypes vary, and therefore so do optimal treatment strategies for each subtype. Individuals vary in their genetic make up. Genetic variants that are strongly associated with a particular trait can be used to investigate the effect of that trait on the risk of different stroke subtypes. For examples, if individuals with genetic variants that are strongly associated high blood pressure also more often suffer a particular stroke subtype, it would suggest that higher blood pressure causes that subtype of stroke. This technique is called Mendelian randomization, and has the advantage that genetic variants are randomly allocated, and so the genetic variants that any individual gets are not affected by their lifestyle or environment, preventing these factors from biasing the associations observed. During my fellowship, I will be using the Mendelian randomization technique to unravel the mechanisms that cause different subtypes of stroke.