“…Studies included in the present critical review of the literature have revealed several risk factors associated with cerebral ischemia in the local populations of interest. Indeed, high blood pressure (HBP), diabetes, smoking and heart disease were the four main risk factors listed and are as follows: HBP was reported in ( n = 20) studies (31 to 65.4%) [13, 15, 17, 18, 20, 21, 23, 25–28, 30, 33, 35–38, 40–42], diabetes in ( n = 20) studies (12–41.8%) [13, 15, 17, 18, 20, 21, 23, 25–28, 30, 33, 35–38, 40–42], cardiac diseases in 14 studies (7–44.3%) [13, 15, 17, 20, 21, 23, 25–28, 30, 33, 35, 42], atrial fibrillation as associated heart disease was specified in 9 studies (2,5–22%), and smoking in ( n = 19) studies (4–41.8%) [13, 15, 17, 18, 20, 21, 23, 25–28, 30, 33, 35, 37, 38, 40–42].…”