Stroke research priorities for the next decade – A representative view of the European Scientific Community

About one million strokes occur each year in the European Union [1] . Indeed, about 25% of men and 20% of women can expect to suffer a stroke if they live to be 85 years old. As a cause of death worldwide, stroke is second only to coronary heart disease [2] . Although stroke is a major cause of death, mortality data underestimate its true burden. This is chronic disability.Since stroke causes disability more often than death, stroke patients frequently require long hospital stays followed by ongoing support in the community, or nursing home care. Stroke is consequently a major drain on health care funding. Stroke is the number one cause of disability in the European Union. The total incidence of stroke is projected to increase considerably over the next two decades. This is because of the rapid increase in the elderly population. It is predicted that stroke will account for 6.2% of the total burden of illness in 2020 [3] . Thus, without more effective strategies for the prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation of stroke, the cost of this disease will increase dramatically. The European Commission hosted a European Stroke Workshop in Brussels on October 25, 2005, gathering top European experts in clinical stroke management, basiscience, stroke research and industry. The primary objective of the workshop was to exchange views on the topic of stroke and to identify research activities that could potentially result in major advances in the areas of stroke prevention, treatment and recovery. These research priorities should address the most pressing scientific, clinical and industrial needs in the field of stroke. Participants agreed that answers to the questions posed by these research priorities must significantly help in reducing the stroke burden to the European Union. The following is a summary of the ideas that were presented, discussed and agreed upon during the Stroke Workshop. Several of the key topics, particularly those in basic science stroke research and imaging, span prevention, therapy and recovery, thus conceivably making contributions to multiple areas of stroke management