[Effectiveness of a stroke prevention program in a high-risk group].

As a result of screening of males born in 1922-1931 (n = 2435) a group with a high risk for stroke development (n = 620) was identified. A total of 430 of these patients were followed up for 2 years. At the final stage the authors collected data on 80% of the patients who had undergone the primary examination and carried out a new screening of age-matched males. The morbidity rate related to cerebral stroke was 2.59% in the high risk group and 1.48% in the remaining population. The incidence of myocardial infarction in the above two groups was 5.01% and 1.80% respectively. At the same time 55.9% of new cases of cerebral stroke and 44.2% of myocardial infarction occurred in individuals who were not included into the high risk group and had an "intermediate" risk of the development of these diseases. It is concluded that the problem of combating cerebral stroke cannot be solved by putting emphasis exclusively on prevention in high risk groups and that it should be combined with wide-scale prophylactic work among the population.