Stroke remains one of the major causes of disability and deathin the United States. It is a terrifyingly sudden and unwelcomevisitation. It swiftly deprives its victims of control over limbmuscles and even consciousness. Speech is commonly impairedduring the acute phases of the illness. Patients with stroke oftenidentify their disease as an attack from the outside ratherthan a festering, internal impairment. Historically, stroke hasfrequently been considered by its victims as a punishment ratherthan a human affliction provoked by natural causes.The United States Public Health Service estimates thatabout 795,000 Americans experience a new or recurrent strokeeach year. In 2001 the Service initiated a broad surveillanceprogram, enlisting 195 hospitals in Massachusetts, Georgia,North Carolina and Illinois to track the prevalence, demographicfeatures, secular trends and risk factors preceding thedisease. And in the course of these studies, some 56,969 patientswith stroke, 18 years or older, were studied.
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