Impact of secondary prevention on survival in patients with stroke: from clinical trials to clinical practice

Over recent decades, the emergence of evidence-based medicine has largely contributed to our knowledge of vascular risk factors for stroke. Hence, there has been considerable progress in secondary prevention of stroke thanks to randomised clinical trials, which have highlighted the efficacy of several therapies in reducing the risk of stroke recurrence and mortality. This has led to the publication of guidelines for stroke management worldwide.1 2 However, the extent to which these guidelines have been applied and their impact on the outcome in patients with stroke still need to be explored on a larger scale. A recent systematic review of population-based studies demonstrated a decline in …