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(Stroke. 2000;31:1481.)
© 2000 American Heart Association, Inc.

Editorial

Stroke: Continuity and Change

Vladimir Hachinski, MD, DSc, Editor-in-Chief

Correspondence and reprint requests to Vladimir Hachinski, MD, Clinical Neurological Sciences, University of Western Ontario, University Hospital, 339 Windermere Road, PO Box 5339, London, Ontario, N6A 5A5 Canada. E-mail rebecca.nott@lhsc.on.ca

Key Words: editorial • stroke

Stroke has never been as challenging or as exciting. An aging population and the westernization of the world will yield increasing numbers of stroke patients. At the same time, growing recognition and expanding knowledge will enable us to do something about it. Awareness is a necessary prelude to action, and already much can be done to prevent and treat stroke. Organized stroke care, centered around a stroke unit, is a cornerstone upon which much can be built. Imaging will allow us to peer into the brain, the blood vessels, and the body with unprecedented acuity, while DNA and protein chip technology will make the insights gained from the unraveling of the human genome widely applicable. Increasingly, we will move from phenomenology to mechanisms of disease. Vaccination against stroke and the seeding of stem cells into the healing brain may become part of our therapeutic repertoire.

All of this will be costly, in a globalizing but unequal world. More will be available, but to whom? The ethics of allocating limited resources and the conflicts of interest arising out of the commercialization of science will have to be solved. Although our primary goal is the diffusion of scientific knowledge, we have to be aware of the context in which it is generated and applied. The Internet allows near-instant communication and access to almost unlimited information, much of it of wildly differing quality. Nevertheless, the Internet has tremendous potential for patients and physicians alike. Its availability prompted Harold Varmus, the former Director of . . . [Full Text of this Article]