Cerebrospinal fluid and plasma concentration of soluble intercellular adhesion molecule 1, vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 and endothelial leukocyte adhesion molecule in patients with acute ischemic brain disease.

Background: Leukocyte migration into the ischemic area is a complex process, controlled by adhesion molecules (AM) in leukocytes and endothelium, by migratory capacity of leukocytes and the presence of hemotaxic agents in the tissue. In this research it was supposed that in the blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of patients in the acute phase of ischemic brain disease (IBD) there were relevant changes in the concentration of soluble AM (sICAM-1, sVCAM-1 and sE-selectin), that could have been the indicators of the intensity of damaging processes in central nervous system (CNS).

Methods: The study included 45 IBD patients, 15 with transient ischemic attack (TIA), 15 with reversible ischemic attack (RIA), and 15 with brain infarction (BI), of both sexes, mean age 66 +/- 7.

[Protein S and ischemic brain disease].

Ischemic brain disease (IBD) represents clinical entity participating with almost 80% in all vascular brain diseases. Ethiopatogenesis and pathophysiology of the ischemic brain disease are apparently most complex in human medicine. In addition to the significant progression in understanding of ethiopatogenesis and pathophysiology of the ischemic brain disease, we are currently aware of the fact that in one third of these patients the source--the disorder or the disease of crucial importance for this sequence of events in the opposing direction cannot be diagnosed with certainty.

Changes of cortisol levels and index of lipid peroxidation in cerebrospinal fluid of patients in the acute phase of completed stroke.

Background: Brain ischemia initiates series of biochemical reactions that could, directly or indirectly, induce and extend processes that damage numerous cellular and subcellular structures. One of the reactions of organism to ischemia is the increased release of glucocorticoid hormones, included in regulation of effects of numerous mediators/modulators that could be released in the acute phase of brain ischemia. Considering that brain infarction induced systemic response of organism to stress, we presumed that it reflected the contents of cortisol in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) during the acute phase of the disease, and that cortisol influenced damaging processes of lipid peroxidation in CNS initiated by ischemia.

[Predictive value of changes in the hemostasis system in patients with ischemic brain diseases].

The aim of this research was to determine the importance of tracking the dynamics of changes of the hemostatic system factors (aggregation of thrombocytes, D-dimer, PAI-1, antithrombin III, protein C and protein S, factor VII and factor VIII, fibrin degradation products, euglobulin test and th activated partial thromboplastin time--aPTPV) in relation to the level of the severity of ischaemic brain disorders (IBD) and the level of neurological and functional deficiency in the beginning of IBD manifestation from 7 to 10 days, 19 to 21 day, and after 3 to 6 months. The research results confirmed significant predictive value of changes of hemostatic system with the predomination of procoagulant factors, together with the insufficiency of fibrinolisys. Concerning the IBD severity and it's outcome, the significant predictive value was shown in the higher levels of PAI-1 and the lower level of antithrombin III, and borderline significant value was shown in the accelerated aggregation of thrombocytes and the increased concentration of D-dimer.

[Recurrent episodes of focal cerebral ischemia in a female patient with mitral valve prolapse and migraine headache].

Migraine is episodic, paroxysmal disorder where the headache represents the central symptom and is followed with different combinations of neurologic, gastrointestinal and vegetative changes. Not until the diagnostic procedures were developed, ischemic lesions were verified even in the patients with ordinary migraine. This is a report of a patient with migraine headache, followed twice by verified episodes of temporary ischemic attacks and verified focal ischemic lesion of cerebral parenchyma.