Careful history taking, clinical course of the disease, and neurological examination are mandatory to differentiate cerebrovascular disease from other neurological diseases or even from non-neurological diseases. Cerebrovascular diseases can be classified as ischemic stroke and hemorrhagic stroke. More specified classification of ischemic stroke according to the presumptive ischemic mechanism may be helpful to the treatment and secondary prevention. The unique clinical characteristics of ischemic stroke of different subtypes and diagnostic tests are described.