Current therapies in ischemic stroke. Part A. Recent developments in acute stroke treatment and in stroke prevention

Stroke is the third leading cause of death with an increasing prevalence. In previous years many important achievements and new therapeutic strategies have been established. This article provides an overview on recent developments and is an update to the article of Green et al. that was published in 2004. As this article is a comprehensive review we divided it in two parts. In this Part A of our review, recent developments in acute stroke treatment and in stroke prevention are described. In Part B we will reflect on neuroprotection.