[Risk factors of acute cerebral ischemia in geriatrics. Personal observations]

Risk factors for acute cerebral ischemia in geriatrics were assessed in two groups of 100 patients by comparing anamnestic data (based on a personal questionnaire) to laboratory data. The first group included patients affected by ischemic ictus not more than 45 days prior to the start of the study; the second group comprised geriatric subjects whose clinical characteristics were considered "normal for their age". The study took into account both the quality and quantity of findings. It was observed that risk factors play a more important role in women. Arterial hypertension, cardiopathies, cerebrovascular symptomatology, drug therapy, hyperfibrinogenemia and the number of red blood cells were the most important risk factors, followed by hematocrit, hemoglobin, total cholesterol and ATS ratio. The importance of the familiar factor for women and the lack of a role for HDL cholesterol in men were underlined.