Stroke has dropped from third to fourth place in the leading causes of U.S. deaths, according to a preliminary CDC report on mortality data from 2008. Rounding out the top five are heart disease (1), cancer (2), chronic lower respiratory diseases (3), and accidents (5).
The number of stroke deaths fell by roughly 20% from 2000 to 2008. American Heart Association president Dr. Ralph L. Sacco says that the reduction can be attributed to a combination of improved prevention, greater use of thrombolytics, and use of drugs that prevent recurrent stroke.
Meanwhile, deaths from chronic lower respiratory diseases increased, partly due to a change in the WHO's classification system.
In addition, American life expectancy decreased slightly, from 77.9 years in 2007 to 77.8 years in 2008.
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