The author has studied to review the recent informations on the prevention and management of cerebrovascular disease in the community.
@ES The results of the study were summarized as follows :
@EN 1. There are two main public health strategies to deal with the blood pressure, serum cholesterol, and smoking, the main modifiable risk factors.
2. The "high-risk" approach may involve population screening or opportunistic case-finding and the selective treatment of the few individual at highest risk.
3. The "mass" approach, alternative and complementary strategy, is to try to produce a modest reduction in the risk factor in every individual in the community by some form of intervention (usually by life-style changes) that affects the whole
population.
4. Prevention of stroke is clearly preferred to treatment after stroke, yet preventive measures are often overlooked.
5. The best method of reducing the stroke burden in a community would thus seem to be the general reduction of mean levels of blood pressure, cholesterol, and cigarette smoking in the population.
6. To complement this, individuals at high risk of stroke, either because they have very high risk factor levels or for other reasons (e. g., those with transient ischemic attacks, coronary heart disease, or peripheral vascular disease), would
benefit
from reduction in their individual risk factors.
7. Use of other prophylactic measures such as antiplatelet therapy would also be helpful in high risk patients.
8. The prevention of cerebrovascular disease can best be achieved through continuing medical efforts to deal with high risk individuals, and through community efforts to encourage a healthier life-style in the population as a whole.
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