Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Poor-quality diets promote ischemic stroke. Red blood cell fatty acids (RBC-FAs) are objective, long-term biomarkers of diet. In a case-control study nested in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)-Spain, we developed a blood-based lipidomic fat quality (LFQ) score considering pre-defined RBC-FA diet-related biomarkers, and examined whether LFQ score relates to the risk of ischemic stroke. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We determined the RBC-FAs (n = 438 cases of incident ischemic stroke, n = 438 matched controls). For each participant, we scored 1 for each beneficial metric (C15:0+C17:0; C18:2n-6; C18:3n-3; C20:5n-3; C22:6n-3) ⩾the median of the control group; and 1 for each detrimental metric (C16:0; C16:1n-7; C18:0)