No abstract

Stroke in patients with AF is generally more severe and outcome markedly poorer than in patients with sinus rhythm. This accentuates the importance of anticoagulant treatment of individuals with AF. A lower blood pressure in the acute stage of stroke may contribute to the increased stroke severity in patients with AF.

The decisive factor of ES was initial stroke severity. ES per se was not related to mortality. Surprisingly, in survivors, ES predicted a better outcome. We explain this finding by a relatively larger ischemic penumbra in patients who have an ES after a stroke.

The hypofrontality theory ofthe pathogenesof schizophrenia predicts that cortical lesions caupsychosis. To test the hypothesis that the state of psychosis in temporal lobe epilepsy is associated with the same striatal supersensitivity that may cause psychosis in schizophrenia, we measured the rate of metabolism of an exogenous analog of dopa in both disorders, using positron emission tomography (PET) ofthe tracer 6-18Flfluoro-L-dopa (18F-dopa) (5,6).We have previously shown that the rate of metabolism of externally administered 18F-dopa is an index ofthe activity of the enzyme responsible for the decarboxylation of dopa to dopamine (EC 4.1.1.28) (7,8). We determined the brain metabolism of 18F-dopa in 31 subjects, including 10 patients with psychotic disorders, of whom 5 had schizophrenia and 5 had a history of complex partial seizures (CPS) with schizophreniform psychosis, and 21 control subjects, of whom 8 had CPS without psychosis and 13 were healthy volunteers.

We compared stroke severity, risk factors, and prognosis in patients with recurrent versus first-ever stroke. In the Copenhagen Stroke Study, we prospectively studied 1,138 unselected patients with acute stroke. Stroke was recurrent in 265 (23%) despite most of these patients being given prophylactic treatment prior to recurrence. Only 12% of patients with atrial fibrillation were receiving anticoagulant treatment prior to recurrence. In multivariate analysis, recurrence was more frequently associated with a history of TIA, atrial fibrillation, male gender, and hypertension, but not with age, daily alcohol consumption, smoking, diabetes, ischemic heart disease, serum cholesterol, or hematocrit. Mortality was almost doubled compared with patients with a first-ever stroke. In survivors, however, both neurologic and functional outcomes and the speed of recovery were, in general, similar in the two groups. Despite similar neurologic impairments, patients with recurrence contralateral to their first stroke had markedly more severe functional disability after completed rehabilitation than patients with ipsilateral recurrence, implying that the ability to compensate functionally is decreased in patients with contralateral recurrence. Our findings emphasize the importance of consistent anticoagulant treatment for stroke patients with atrial fibrillation and close blood pressure control in stroke patients with hypertension. Other prophylactic measures are needed in patients in whom ASA fails to prevent recurrence. Patients with recurrent stroke have a markedly higher mortality than patients with a first-ever stroke, but those who survive recover as well and as fast as patients with a first-ever stroke. However, if recurrence is contralateral to the first stroke, functional recovery is poorer.