Editorial

Cerebrovascular accidents, more commonly referred to as strokes, remain the second most common cause of mortal-ity and the third most common cause of disability worldwide.1 It has been estimated that more than three quarters of all strokes in the United States are attributable to ischemia, with the remain-der principally related to intracranial hemorrhage.2,3 Although our attempts to address modifiable risk factors for stroke have decreased the incidence of stroke, stroke-related death and dis-ability are increasing at concerning rates.4,5 These observations lie in stark contrast to contemporary metrics for acute myocar-dial infarction, for which both short-term mortality and long-term mortality have been decreasing over the past 30 years,6,7 con-comitant with the increasing use of prompt reperfusion strategies, including primary percutaneous coronary intervention. The cell types affected in the context of stroke and myocardial infarction (neurons and cardiomyocytes, respectively) are similar in tha