Regional cerebral blood flow in apoplexy without arterial occlusion

IN A PREVIOUS STUDY we reported on regional cerebral blood flow in patients with apoplexy due to occlusion of the middle cerebral artery.l The xenon 133 injection method was used and the studies included observations of the regional flow response of the brain to changes of the arterial blood pressure and of the arterial pC0, and to injection of theophylline. Focal ischemia or focal hyperemia or both were found in all patients, combined with focal vasoparalysis in most of them. This group of middle cerebral artery occlusions was studied with the aim of collecting information on the regional cerebral blood flow and its regulation in a more welldefined group of apoplexies than in earlier reports.2-6 In the present paper, we have aimed at studying another fairly uniform group of apoplexies, i.e., patients without angiographic evidence of arterial occlusion and all with hemiparetic symptoms of more than twenty-four hours’ duration (studies in more transitory attacks will be reported separately).T The flow studies were made at varying time intervals after the acute onset of the disease, and this proved to be of decisive importance for the regional blood flow derangement seen.