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An international team of researchers part-funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) has identified 22 new genetic risk factors for stroke, tripling the number of genetic mutations known to increase stroke risk.

Researchers carrying out the MEGASTROKE study, published in Nature Genetics, studied the DNA of more than 520,000 people from around the world, comparing the genes of those who had suffered different types of strokes with healthy volunteers.

The team hope that this major advance will lead to drugs to prevent multiple types of stroke.

Find out more (University of Oxford website)