Stroke in Young Fabry Patients (sifap1): Frequency of Fabry Disease in Young Stroke Patients

Aim: To determine the frequency of Fabry disease in an unselected group of young patients (18 - 55 years of age) with acute cerebrovascular event (CVE) Fabry disease and stroke: Rolfs and co-workers have shown a high frequency of Fabry disease in a cohort of patients with cryptogenic stroke (4 % \[28/721\]) aged between 18 and 55 years. This corresponds to about 1.2 % in the general population of young stroke patients. Therefore the authors stated that Fabry disease must be considered in all cases of unexplained stroke in young patients, especially in cases with the combination of infarction in the vertebrobasilar artery system and proteinuria. Cryptogenic strokes are cerebrovascular lesions of unknown origin. Clinical and laboratory data show that Fabry disease is itself a risk factor for accelerated atherosclerosis and cardiac and renal disease, which can lead to emboli and hypertension. The pilot-phase started April 2007; the official study started January 2008.