What is a stroke

  Stroke, also known as stroke or cerebrovascularaccident, is a symptom of cerebrovascular dysfunction caused by blockage or rupture of cerebral blood vessels due to various reasons, resulting in focal neurological deficits. In ancient Chinese, the word “Zhong” means “blow” and “yashi” means “stone”; “wind” means “good at moving and changing” and “windstorm” means “wind”, so the ancient people used metaphor to name the disease by associating the symptoms with the observed natural phenomenon.  Stroke can be broadly divided into ischemic stroke (transient ischemic attack, cerebral infarction) and hemorrhagic stroke (cerebral hemorrhage), with clinical manifestations characterized by sudden fainting, unconsciousness or sudden onset of distortion of the mouth and eyes, hemiplegia, strong tongue, and mental retardation. With the change of socioeconomic conditions, some non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, cerebrovascular diseases (mainly strokes) and malignant neoplasms have moved significantly forward in the sequence of human death causes and become the three major causes of death.  According to epidemiological findings, it is estimated that 1.2 to 1.5 million new stroke patients occur each year, of which 800,000 to 1 million die, 75% of the survivors are disabled, and the recurrence rate is as high as 41% within 5 years. Patients who have had a stroke are more likely to have a recurrence than a stroke. Stroke poses a great threat to human health and life, causing great suffering to patients and a heavy burden to families and society. Currently, the national annual expenditure due to this disease is close to 20 billion RMB. Therefore, it is imperative to fully understand the seriousness of stroke, to improve the treatment and prevention of stroke, and to reduce the incidence, disability and mortality of stroke.  Studies have shown that some of the major risk factors for stroke can be prevented and intervened. Strengthening tertiary prevention of stroke can reduce risk factors, reduce stroke incidence, and improve people’s quality of life and quality of life.