Supplementary file 1_A systematic review of intracranial atherosclerosis epidemiology—the largest contributor to the global ischemic stroke burden?.docx

Moderate and high-quality studies investigating stroke recurrence in ICAD found a rate of 8%−28.3%. Moderate and high-quality studies investigating ICAD prevalence in unselected populations found a prevalence of 2.6%−58.5%. Moderate and high-quality studies found an ICAD prevalence of 5.4%−64.7% amongst stroke patients, compared with 15.5% found by a high-quality study from Europe.</p>Conclusions<p>Epidemiological studies of ICAD demonstrate significant heterogeneity in design and risk of bias, leading to uncertainty regarding the true burden of this important disease.

Nevertheless, current literature suggests that ICAD is at least as important as the other major etiologies in its contribution to the global ischemic stroke burden, highlighting the need for further research to inform therapeutic advances.</p>