Scan that predicts if you are a stroke risk

A SCAN developed by Oxford University scientists could help prevent as many as one in four strokes.

Doctors could use the new MRI technique to identify who is at risk, researchers said.

About a quarter of the 100,000 strokes in Britain each year are caused by plaques that build up in the carotid arteries, eventually stopping oxygen from getting to the brain.

If someone suffers a ministroke, doctors will scan them to look for plaques – which can be surgically removed, preventing a major stroke.

Current scans can detect only large plaques but the new technique spots smaller cholesterol-rich plaques, which can be more dangerous.

In a study in the journal JACC Cardiovascular Imaging, scientists used the scan to measure cholesterol in the carotid plaques of 26 patients. The scan was shown to be accurate after the cholesterol level was checked in removed plaques.

Professor Sir Nilesh Samani, of the British Heart Foundation, which part-funded the study, said that if further research was successful, ‘this technique has the promise to save lives’.