[Pathology of stroke (= apoplexy)]

In this paper we give a summarizing review of the pathology of apoplexy. Apoplexy is the clinical term for sudden loss of consciousness, followed by paralysis resulting from a cerebral haemorrhage, occlusion of a cerebral artery, thrombosis, or embolism, with loss of cerebral function of the affected brain region. Apoplexy is a very important disease in gerontology and geriatric practice and clinics, since atherosclerosis with cerebral sclerosis, hypertension, and hypertensive angiopathy occur very frequently in the elderly. Besides these main causes of apoplexy aneurysm and other causes of apoplexy are also discussed (i.e. angiomas, primary and secondary "apoplectiform" brain tumors). In this paper only the most important morphological and clinical findings in apoplexy are discussed for general and clinical physicians, giving an introduction to the following contributions in this journal.