[The hematocrit and atherothrombotic cerebral infarcts]

The authors compare the hematocrit values of 131 patients suffering from an acute cerebral atherothrombotic infarct, confirmed by CT scan, with those of 165 controls of the same age and sex. Both the analysis of the average by the Student's t test and the comparison between the distribution of frequencies by the chi square test, point out that hematocrit is significantly higher (p less than 0.001) in infarcts than in controls. Dividing patients according to CT scan (negative, lacunar infarct, cortical and/or subcortical infarct), no significant difference in hematocrit levels among the three groups is noticed. The authors confirm the positive association between hematocrit and atherothrombotic cerebral infarct and discuss the possible implications in the prevention and the therapy of cerebral ischemic stroke.