Hypertension and Stroke - Blas Gil-Extremera - Bog

It is well known that arterial hypertension is the most important and frequent cardiovascular risk factor. The damage caused to the arterial walls accounts for the high prevalence of some disorders such as ischemic heart disease, peripheral artery disease, and stroke. When the histological lesion occurs in the Willis¿circle, patients can suffer from different types of stroke. Therefore, hypertension and stroke cannot be considered separately as individual entities, but as a pathogenic symbiosis between the two. Cerebrovascular disease is one of the most common and devastating disorders today; stroke can be ischemic or hemorrhagic. Stroke is the second leading cause of death worldwide, which caused 6.2 million deaths in 2011. It is well-established that the incidence of cerebrovascular diseases increases with age, and the number of strokes is set to increase as the elderly population grows. A stroke, or cerebrovascular accident, is defined as an abrupt onset of a neurologic deficit that is attributable to a focal vascular cause.