[Diagnosis of stroke--an update]

In practical day-to-day terms, most patients have one of the common causes of stroke: ischemic stroke caused by the complications of atherothrombosis, intracranial small Vessel disease, embolism from the heart, primary intracerebral hemorrhage caused by hypertension, or subarachnoid hemorrhage as a result of a ruptured saccular aneurysm. There are three issues to be considered in assessing the reliability of the clinical diagnosis of stroke: the diagnosis of stroke itself: is it a stroke or not; whether the stroke is caused by an infarct or a hemorrhage and particular in ischemic stroke the site and size of the lesion (anterior vs. posterior circulation, lacunar vs. cortical, etc.) No clinical scoring method can differentiate with absolute reliability ischemic stroke from primary intracerebral hemorrhage. To do this brain computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging is required. For vascular diagnosis ultrasound and magnetic resonance angiography are ideal and complementary non-invasive techniques. Both have no risks and are reasonably sensitive. Catheterangiography is only reserved for patients with subarachnoid hemorrhage with a view to surgical or endovascular treatment or in exceptional cases to establish a more firm prognosis. The diagnosis of ischemic stroke caused by embolism from the heart can only be considered at all if there is an identifiable cardioembolic source which is the case in about 30% of ischemic stroke, a higher proportion in recent studies using transoesophageal echocardiography. It is not clear that transoesophageal echocardiography provides much more information for clinical decision-making than transthoracic echocardiography, although it certainly provides more anatomical information in selected patients. This article summarises the diagnostic armamentarium which is used for the diagnosis of stroke and gives an overview of clinically reliable and relevant measures.