Blood flow: Autistic people have a 19 percent greater chance of experiencing a major ischemic event during their lives than do non-autistic people, according to a new preprint. In women, the increase is 71 percent. The study, which examined health records in the United Kingdom over a period of 20 years, found that autistic people have higher prevalence of stroke but not cardiac ischemia. The findings complement research that has found elevated rates of cardiometabolic conditions in this population. The Transmitter previously reported on links between congenital heart disease and autism.

Autism research spotted this week:

• “Understanding vulnerability through variability: A longitudinal twin study linking sex differences in neurodiversity, neurodevelopment and X-linked genetic mechanisms” Behavioural Brain Research
• “RankVar: Machine learning-based variant ranking and reinterpretation for rare genetic diseases” Genome Medicine
• “Nonsense-mediated decay influences position-dependent effects of SCN2A premature stop codons on neuronal excitability and behavior” Molecular Psychiatry
• “Pioneer of ‘extreme male brain’ theory of autism now says phrase unhelpful” The Guardian
• “An autism breakthrough, or an illusion? The fight over assisted spelling” The New York Times
  See also: “Still no proof for facilitated spelling methods”
• “University gets £25.8m donation for autism research” BBC