Editorial: Incidence of stroke after myocardial infarction ||FREE PAPER||

Reza Tabrizchi

Division of Basic Medical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St John’s, NL, Canada

Evidence presented from a recent community-based cohort designed study by Witt and colleagues (2005) suggests that the risk of stroke substantially increases following myocardial infarction (MI). While this suggestion is not new, this particular study was longitudinal in design, spanning a period of 2 decades with a median follow-up of 5.6 years (range 0 to 22.2 years). The study was somewhat limited as the cohort under investigation comprised a white population specific to Olmsted County, MN, USA and the measured outcome included only a review of medical records. Notwithstanding these limitations, the study provides some quite interesting epidemiological information regarding the incidence of stroke following MI (Witt et al 2005).