Women are more likely than men to inherit an increased risk of having a stroke, new research indicates.

The findings, which appear in the medical journal Lancet Neurology, are based on an analysis of family history for 806 people who suffered a stroke or mini-stroke and were enrolled in the population-based Oxford Vascular Study.

Female participants were 40 percent more likely than males to have at least one affected first-degree relative, and this was entirely due to there being more affected female relatives, report Dr. Peter M. Rothwell and Dr. Emmanuel Touze, from the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford, UK.

Among the female stroke patients in the study, their mothers were 80 percent more likely to have had a stroke than their fathers. Among the male stroke patients, there was no difference between parents in terms of their likelihood of having had a stroke.

The female stroke patients were three times more likely than males to have a sister who had also suffered a stroke.

“Our results lend support to previous findings of distinct maternal and paternal effects on the risk of cardiovascular diseases,” the investigators say.

SOURCE: Lancet Neurology, online December 22, 2006.