Ischemic Stroke and n-3 Fatty Acids

The content of fatty acids in subcutaneous adipose tissue was measured to determine whether differences of fatty acids correlate with presence or absence of cerebral infarction in individual patients. Adipose tissue microbiopsies was sampled from 10 patients with computed tomography (CT) verified cerebral infarction and 10 matched control subjects, and assayed for content of fatty acids by gas-liquid chromatographic analysis. There were no differences in levels of n-3 fatty acids of marine origin. Patients with cerebral infarction had statistically significant lower levels of the essential fatty acids linoleic acid (mean±SE, 8.9±0.4 v 10.7±0.5%) ( P v 1.00±0.06%) ( P v 5.7±0.4%) ( P