"Management of emerging or unconventional risk factors"

Hypertension, diabetes mellitus, hypercholesterolemia, cigarette smoking, arterial fibrillation, and carotid stenosis are well-defined risk factors for stroke. Treatment of these risk factors reduced the incidence of ischemic stroke or transient ischemic attacks. Besides, unconventional or emerging risk factors also need to be controlled. First, recent studies showed that effective interventions targeting air pollution, obstructive sleep apnea syndrome, and metabolic syndrome reduced the risk of ischemic cerebrovascular diseases. Second, an increased incidence of stroke has been observed during the COVID-19 pandemic, suggesting the importance of infection and inflammation in the development of stroke. Lastly, cancer increases the risk of stroke. Cancer-related stroke is an emerging subtype of ischemic stroke and is increasingly being recognized. The purpose of this chapter is to present the most recent studies about the unconventional and emerging risk factors for stroke that may be helpful in reducing the incidence of stroke by adequate control of these factors.