Clinical research in primary stroke prevention: needs, opportunities, and challenges

Most ( approximately 70%) of strokes are first-ever strokes, and hence to substantially reduce the neurological burden, primary prevention is crucial. Here, highlights of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke workshop "Stroke Risk Assessment and Future Stroke Primary Prevention Trials" held January 12-13, 2004 are summarized. The Workshop discussions focused on stroke risk assessment; the high-risk vs. population-based approaches to primary prevention; desirable characteristics of candidate treatments and potential novel treatments, such as the 'polypill'; subclinical disease as risk assessment tool and as surrogate outcome, and methodological issues in stroke primary prevention trials. The importance of assessing cognitive decline as an important consequence of covert and overt vascular injury of the brain was emphasized. The scientific or logistic barriers to stroke primary prevention trials are challenging, but are not insurmountable.