[Reducing the burden of stroke in Israel]

Stroke is the third most common cause of death in Israel. Stroke is a leading cause of severe long-term disability and is associated with staggering economic costs. Ethnic variations observed in stroke mortality rates support that undetermined inherent genetic or sociocultural differences act to increase stroke mortality rates in immigrants from Asia and North Africa over that predicted from their profile of traditional risk factors. In accordance with other Western countries, there has been a decline in mortality rates from stroke, concomitantly with a decline observed in coronary heart disease mortality. With the aging of the population, the burden of stroke is projected to further increase. Moreover, brain infarcts detected by brain imaging are 5-times more common than the clinical syndrome of acute stroke, detected in about 20% of healthy elderly and up to 50% of high risk patients. Estimates of the incidence of stroke, characteristics of patients, management and outcome became available from the tri-annual national acute stroke Israeli survey (NASIS) program, initiated during 2004. The annual incidence of hospitalized acute cerebrovascular events is approximately 13,000 and rates, particularly in women, seem even higher than those observed for acute myocardial infarction. Findings also highlight critical deficiencies in acute stroke units and systems for urgent evaluation and intervention in acute stroke. Action plans are urgently required, in accordance with the experience from other countries, in order to upgrade the stroke infrastructure nationwide for more effective prevention and management of acute stroke.