Senior neurologists have accused world health officials of failing to recognise stroke as a brain disease.
The World Federation of Neurology says it disagrees with a change made in the classification of stroke by the World Health Organisation.
Professor Raad Shakir, head of the advisory body and President of the World Federation of Neurology, explains: "There are very good reasons that we agreed five years ago, in a transparent process and after extensive debate in the World Health Organisation Neuroscience Topic Advisory Group and with World Health Organisation representatives, that all types of stroke should form a single block in the new classification that should be part of the nervous system disease chapter.
"All manifestations of cerebrovascular disease are related to brain dysfunction. The relationship with dementia and particularly Alzheimer’s disease is becoming clearer."
But moves are under way to move the newly created cerebrovascular thematic block from neurology to circulatory disease in the new International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11).
The authors of the statement in The Lancet recently stated: "The medical rationale for stroke being a disease of the brain is overwhelming." They also believe this change in classification was unexpected and uncoordinated.
It "did not follow the expected transparency of World Health Organisation decision-making," Professor Shakir says.
The statement concludes: "The main purpose of any enduring classification should be to serve the interests of patients, which is not the case unless stroke is acknowledged as being a brain disease.
"The latest classification decision with respect to stroke needs to be reversed in order to safeguard patient care and provide correct figures and funding for health care provision."
Shakir, R. et al. Revising the ICD: stroke is a brain disease. The Lancet 13 October 2016 doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(16)31850-5
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