- The takeaway is that this is a significant risk factor for stroke. So a lot of people know what the traditional risk factors are, high blood pressure, diabetes, elevated cholesterol, family history, et cetera, but many people may not know the association between if you take IV drugs, could that also increase your risk of stroke? So this now I think allows the public as well as physicians to understand what that association is and that, at least in this study, it's highlighted that there was an increased percentage of people develop endocarditis and that endocarditis then translated into stroke.