Smoking as a Crucial Independent Determinant of Stroke

Background Although smoking is known to be powerful risk factor for other vascular diseases, such as cardiac and peripheral vascular disease, only relatively recently has evidence for the role of smoking in the development of stroke been established. The reasons for this advance lie in the acknowledgement that stroke is a heterogeneous disease, in which its subtypes are associated with different risk factors. Furthermore, improvements in the stringency of epidemiological studies and the greater use of CT scanning have enabled the role of smoking in the development of stroke to be elucidated.