After a first stroke, patients are nearly twice as likely to die from heart disease than from another stroke, according to a study published in the medical journal Neurology. However, in the long-term, they are more likely to have another non-fatal stroke than to have a cardiac event.

"Few population-based studies with long-term follow-up have compared risk of recurrent stroke and cardiac events after first ischemic stroke," Dr. M. S. V. Elkind and colleagues from Columbia University, New York, write. "The relative risk of these two outcomes may inform treatment decisions."