[Therapy of arterial hypertension associated with acute stroke. Current trends and problems].

Acute stroke may cause hypertension and actually available devices for non-invasive blood pressure monitoring make it possible to study short-term variability of pressure in this condition, in order to settle a more rational diagnostic and therapeutic approach. In our experience blood pressure variability has shown to be greater in thrombo-embolic, than haemorrhagic stroke. This outcome contributes to explain literature disagreement on benefits of antihypertensive therapy and suggests the need for blood pressure monitoring in every trial, that wants to evaluate with satisfactory reliability the antihypertensive treatment in ischaemic stroke.

Pathologic sideroblastosis in myelodysplastic syndromes and acute nonlymphocytic leukemia.

To assess the incidence and the eventual prognostic relevance of pathologic sideroblastosis in myelodysplastic syndromes and acute nonlymphocytic leukemia, 5 acquired idiopathic sideroblastic anemias, 2 refractory anemias, 9 refractory anemias with excess of blasts, 10 acute nonlymphocytic leukemias were studied with regard to sideroblast type (ring or ferritin) and percentage. Pathologic sideroblastosis was commonly found in each subgroup, in some patients it appeared later in the course of the disease while in other reversed. In a successfully treated leukemic patient, pathologic sideroblastosis in otherwise normal bone marrow after therapeutic hypoplasia suggested clonal remission.