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The authors determined the level of neuraminic acid in the serum of 50 patients with encephalomalacia and 25 patients with cerebral haemorrhages on the 1st, 3d and 7th days of the disease. Twenty healthy subjects served as controls. A statistically significant rise in the concentration of this substance was observed in both groups of patients throughout the whole period of observations.

The present study has proved unequivocally the value of determining apolipoproteins A and B and the APO-L A/B quotient for establishing the risk for cerebrovascular disease. The determination of apolipoproteins should be preferred to the determination of HDL, LDL and VLDL, which has been practised so far. While only 30% of a group of 88 patients suffering from cerebrovascular disease had serum cholesterol levels of more than 250 mg/dl and approx. 57% showed HDL values below 40 mg/dl, a reduced APO-L A/B relation (less than 1.75) was demonstrated in 74%. A reduced APO-L A/B quotient was also observed in more than 70% of 62 CVD patients whose cholesterol level was within the range of normal. Determination of apolipoproteins may, therefore, be regarded as further progress in risk factor diagnostic of arteriosclerotic disease.

Gasometric determinations of pCO2, pO2, HCO3 and SO2 were performed in arterial blood in 100 patients with brain stroke. The following conclusions have been drawn. 1. In 2/3 of cases of brain stroke decreased partial oxygen pressure and in 1/3 of cases acid-base equilibrium disturbances are observed. 2. Hypoxia occurs in brain stroke mainly in patients with consciousness disturbances, which suggests that impaired airways patency plays a role in the pathomechanism of this disturbance. 3. Acid-base equilibrium disturbances in cases of brain stroke have in most patients the character of respiratory alkalosis which seems to be due to hyperventilation determined by central nervous mechanisms as well as to hypoxia caused by insufficient patency of airways. 4. Gasometric investigations of arterial blood in brain stroke are important for establishing the degree of homeostasis disturbances and for choice of methods of therapeutic management.

In 50 patients with encephalomalacia and 50 patients with a transient cerebral ischemic attack (TIA) the risk factors and viscosity of the whole blood as well as the hematocrit were determined before the start of treatment. Compared to a control group, the blood viscosity in patients with encephalomalacia was significantly increased (p less than 0.001) in all ranges of shearing velocity tested, in patients with TIA only at that shearing velocity which may be assumed for the area of microcirculation. This increase was related to the presence of arterial hypertension, hyperlipemia, heart failure, diabetes mellitus, hyperfibrinogenemia and increased tendency of thrombocytes and erythrocytes to aggregate. From the results obtained it was concluded that increased blood viscosity in the cerebral area of microcirculation with insufficient cerebral collateral circulation may decisively favor the development of encephalomalacia.

The authors determined peripheral-blood ammonia level in patients with cerebral strokes. The determinations were done by the method of Konitzer et al. on the 1st, 3rd and 7th days of the disease. The results of determinations were subjected to statistical analysis with the t test of Student. It was found that the mean serum ammonia level in patients with cerebral stroke on the 1st day of the disease was higher than in the control group. The difference was statistically significant. The level of ammonia in the blood of patients with cerebral haemorrhage was significantly higher on the 1st day of the disease than in patients with encephalomalacia. The difference was statistically significant with error probability of 0.05.