Introduction: Stroke, together with ischemic cardiopathy, may be considered to be a vascular epidemic in the developed world, where it is a major social and health problem. In Spain it is the commonest cause of death in women and the second commonest in men.
Development and conclusions: In this article we review the risk factors which cannot be modified (age, sex, inheritance, race, geography and climate) and the well-established risk factors which can be modified (arterial hypertension, cardiopathies with a high risk of embolization, markers for atherosclerosis, diabetes mellitus and transient ischemic accidents). A wide understanding of these risk factors permits the identification of persons with a high risk of having an ischemic stroke. Therefore preventive and therapeutic measures to reduce individual risk from strokes (and their recurrence) and hence reduce morbimortality from this, can be designed.