[Hormonal markers of stress in acute cerebrovascular pathology]

Various studies carried out over the last decade have shown that high glucose levels in the blood foster ischaemic brain damage associated with a worse evolution of such pathologies. The aim of the study we performed was to try to shed some light on whether stress in these patients raised their glucose levels adding to a worsening of the patient's clinical picture. We studied 318 consecutive patients suffering from stroke. We determined fasting glucose levels, prolactin and cortisol within the first few hours of hospitalization and afterwards at seven to ten days and again at one month after the stroke. Clinical severity was evaluated using Toronto and Mathew neurological scales and the degree of incapacity was measured using the Barthel functional scale on the three aforementioned occasions and Rankin's modified scale six and twelve months after the stroke. Clinical severity the first hours after stroke was significantly related to glucose levels, such relationship not being observed with prolactin and cortisol. Nor did we observe any significant association between glucose and these hormones. Likewise the anxiety scale had no relationship with any hormone. Studying medium and long term functional incapacity, glucose significantly correlated with the Rankin scale although with low dependence, such a relationship not being found either with prolactin or cortisol. Our work would seem to indicate that blood glucose behaviour is independent of prolactin and cortisol levels since we found no such relationship between them.