Foreword

Post-ischemic brain damage is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, resulting in increased disability that significantly impacts patients’ quality of life, healthcare costs, and resource use. The incidence of cerebral ischemia increases with age, and it is estimated that about 20% of cases occur in young people between the ages of 18 and 50. The incidence of cerebral ischemia has increased in the younger population under the age of 55, especially in Europe and the United States. However, in the elderly population, the risk of cerebral ischemia is 1 in 3. Currently, approximately 17 million patients each year suffer from ischemic brain injury, of which 6 million will die. In addition, long-term complications, such as the development of dementia, can affect up to half of all survivors of cerebral ischemia and they can live with the debilitating consequences of ischemia for more than twenty years. Recently, significant advances in knowledge of cerebral ischemia have been observed through the use of proteomic and genomic tools in laboratory studies of post-ischemic brain neurodegeneration with the Alzheimer’s disease phenotype and genotype. In clinical and experimental studies following cerebral ischemia, a characteristic neuropathology of Alzheimer’s disease was found, including diffuse and senile amyloid plaques and pathology of the tau protein. CONTINUE READING.....