Led by Robert Brown Jr., M.D., the Mayo researchers stated that there were over 750,000 strokes in the United States in 1999 and another 500,000 mini-strokes, called TIAs or transient ischemic attacks. TIAs are a warning sign for more severe strokes. We like to think everything is going in the right direction, but these data suggest we need to work harder to reduce stroke risk factors, such as high blood pressure, cigarette smoking, diabetes and high cholesterol. Stroke is the common name for a syndrome caused by reduced or blocked blood flow to the brain, causing deficits in movement, sensation or speech. Severe strokes lead to severe disability or death.
Stroke is the third leading cause of death in the United States.
One reason for the resurgence of stroke has been identified in a new study appearing in the February issue of the American Heart Association journal, Stroke. An international team of scientists from Utrecht University, the Netherlands, and the University of Washington, Seattle, analyzed almost 3,000 patients with high blood pressure, or HBP, who had never had a stroke and compared them to 555 stroke patients. Put another way, uncontrolled HBP increased the risk of the most common form of stroke by 50 percent. The study authors point out that between 1960 and 1990, the rates of HBP treatment and control increased in this country. This was associated with a significant decline in the incidence of stroke.