Chronic Kidney Disease and Alcohol Consumption Are Asians at Particular Risk for Hemorrhagic Stroke?

Stroke represents one of the major challenges of the 21stcentury. More than 15 million people suffer from stroke each year worldwide. Enormous efforts in public awareness and prevention of the disease have led in industrialized countries to a slightly declining incidence. Mortality and morbidity (measured in disability-adjusted life years) are, however, expected to rise substantially during the next 2 decades; stroke will climb from 8th rank in 2010 to the 5th rank in 2030 worldwide; compared with 1990, the disability-adjusted life years attributed to stroke will nearly double over these 40 years.1 One important comorbidity that dramatically influences stroke and its outcome is chronic kidney disease (CKD), a clearly underestimated cardiocerebrovascular risk factor. CKD is defined as the combination of kidney damage (with albuminuria) and reduced glomerular filtration rate, as esti