[Immunologic reactivity in the acute phase of a stroke]

Examinations of the clinical and immunological state of 68 patients with the acute stage of cerebral stroke were carried out, and so were immunomorphological examinations of the spleen and the subclavicular lymph nodes in 36 of them whose disease ended in death. An analysis of the results obtained has shown that the immunological reactivity increases from the very first day of the disease. The authors believe that the early immunological response, especially in cases of brain infarction, is due to development of the cerebral stroke in a sensitized body. A rise of selective antibody titres depending on the character of the cerebrovascular disorder was noted: there were: anti-encephalic antibodies targeted at the malacia focus in cases of brain infarction, and antivascular, and to a lesser extent anti-encephalic antibodies in cases of a hemorrhagic stroke. The informative value of the complement fixation test was found to be greater than that of the hemagglutination inhibition test. High degrees of plasmatization of the splenic tissue and the presence of the anti-encephalic immune complexes in it, mainly in cases of brain infarction, also point to the activity of the immunogenesis in the acute stage of the cerebral stroke.