The risk of small bleeds within the brain (known as brain lesions) in higher in blacks than whites and it increases their chances of having a stroke, a new study suggests.

Blacks had 32 percent more brains lesions (called cerebral microbleeds) than whites and it increased their chances of having a stroke. The study also shows that blacks are more likely to have these lesions in many different parts of their brain.

The study has been published in the Oct. 7 issue of Neurology.Dr. Chelsea Kidwell, who led the study, says in an American Academy of Neurology news release that their findings regarding racial differences that are associated with a higher prevalence for these brain lesions can help to introduce some new methods for treating and testing people to avoid stroke.

In their study, the researchers looked at 87 people with interacerebral hemorrhage that is kind of stroke that occurs because of bleeding in the brain. In this group almost half people were black and half were white.

In minorities, Hemorrhagic stroke is two to three times more commomn and in almost 80 percent of these strokes, microbleeds are observes.