Stroke and High Blood Pressure

Introduction Stroke is a is a medical emergency and can cause permanent neurological damage and death.Risk factors for stroke include old age, high blood pressure, previous stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA), diabetes, high cholesterol, tobacco smoking and atrial fibrillation.1 High blood pressure is the most important modifiable risk factor of stroke.1 It is the second leading cause of death worldwide.2

Trends of mortality from stroke
Stroke was the second most frequent cause of death worldwide in 2008, accounting for 6.2 million deaths.3 Approximately 17 million people had a stroke in 2010 and 33 million people have previously had a stroke and were still alive.4 Between 1990 and 2010 the number of strokes decrease by approximately 10% in the developed world and increased by 10% in the developing world.4 Overall two thirds of strokes occurred in those over 65 years old.4 This trend is also true for the United States of America.Mortality from stroke showed a decreasing trend both nationally and in the Maine state for the last 10 years.5

Table 1: Nationwide Mortality from stroke-CDC

Deaths
Crude per 100000
1999
10,101
3.6
2000
9,427
3.3
2001
8,736
3.1
2002
8,492
3.0
2003
8,560
3.0
2004
7,739
2.6
2005
4,564
1.5
2006
4,139
1.4
2007
3,826
1.3
2008
3,633
1.2
2009
3,495
1.1
2010
3,322
1.1
Total
76,034
2.2

Table 2. Mortality from stroke in Maine state-CDC
Year
Deaths
Crude per 100000
1999
64
5.1
2000
54
4.2
2001
53
4.1
2002
58
4.5
2003
56
4.3
2004
41
3.1
2005
16
1.2 (Unreliable)
2006
11
0.8 (Unreliable)
2007
11
0.8 (Unreliable)
2008
11
0.8 (Unreliable)
2009
10
0.8 (Unreliable)
Total
10
0.8

Even Though the mortality from Stroke shows a decreasing trend for the last 10 years both nationwide and in the state of Maine, I have noticed one important difference: Maine state has more deaths from stroke per 100,000 population compared to the

References: 1.Donnan GA, Fisher M, Macleod M, Davis SM (May 2008). "Stroke". Lancet 371 (9624): 1612–23 2.Mathers, CD; Boerma, T; Ma Fat, D (2009). "Global and regional causes of death". British medical bulletin 92: 7–32 3."The top 10 causes of death". WHO. 4.Feigin, Valery L; Forouzanfar, Mohammad H; Krishnamurthi, Rita; Mensah, George A; Connor, Myles; Bennett, Derrick A; Moran, Andrew E; Sacco, Ralph L; Anderson, Laurie; Truelsen, Thomas; O 'Donnell, Martin; Venketasubramanian, Narayanaswamy; Barker-Collo, Suzanne; Lawes, Carlene M M; Wang, Wenzhi; Shinohara, Yukito; Witt, Emma; Ezzati, Majid; Naghavi, Mohsen; Murray, Christopher (1 October 2013). "Global and regional burden of stroke during 1990–2010: findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010". The Lancet. 5. http://wonder.cdc.gov: Accesed on 1/26/2014