Setting priorities for stroke care and research.

Recent publications describing the sobering global increase in stroke mortality and global life years lost due to stroke despite improvements in developed countries have drawn focus on the severe impact of stroke in the developing world. At the same time, three recent interventional trials that failed to demonstrate an important role for catheter-based therapies in acute stroke have called into question this expensive use of technology. Coupling all of this new data leads to the natural conclusion that a focus on stroke prevention for the developing world, and for the poor in developed countries, should be where we set our priorities for the foreseeable future.