The 9th Iranian Stroke Congress

Abstract

Stroke is considered as the second and first factor contributing to the mortality and morbidity, respectively, in the developing countries like Iran. Thanks to the development of the public health awareness and establishment of the required infrastructures, the incidence of the communicable diseases has declined immensely in Iran. On the other hand, the mean age of the population is increasing; this increase is inevitably accompanied by the augmented impact of the other stroke risk factors such as hypertension, hyperlipidemia, smoking etc. Consequently, not only the incidence of stroke has increased but also the onset age has decreased significantly; according the latest population-based study in Iran, the incidence of stroke has increased to 20-150 in 100000, yet the onset age is 10 years less than Europeans or Americans.Fortunately, serious and abundant measures have been taken within the recent years through social movements, conferences, mass media, social networks, and beneficiary associations. The integrated program of developing Stroke Units all over the country is seriously being monitored by the Iranian Stroke Association, Medical Sciences Universities and neurologists from all over the country. Stroke is currently the center of attention of the researchers and academia in Iran and numerous large studies in this regard are currently being conducted.The 9th Iranian Stroke Congress was held after many years of the endeavor of Iranian neurologists to promote stroke treatment in their home county despite numerous obstacles. After 2 years of a continuous national campaign, they started and are to pursue modern standards in stroke treatment on a nation-wide scale. Throughout this event, some achievements of this campaign such as promoting the knowledge of neurologists and other medical professionals active in the field of stroke treatment were further reviewed. To achieve further educational goals, educational courses and lectures in the fields of stroke medicine, neurosonology, and interventional neurology were provided. We hope that these educational goals have been realized with the assistance of the prominent lecturers from all over the world and also participants from all other countries.