Stroke as a complication of medical disease.

This article focuses on the medical diseases that not only lead to cerebrovascular complications, but at times initially manifest as cerebral infarction. Specifically, I examine the relationships between stroke and various medical diseases (inflammatory disease, migraine and other vasoconstrictive disorders, congenital heart disease, connective tissue disorders, infectious disease, malignancy, and polycystic kidney disease). Many of these conditions may cause cerebrovascular ischemia via nonatherosclerotic mechanisms. Understanding these relationships between stroke and medical disease will allow the reader to better recognize etiologic relationships, and thereby reach more accurate diagnoses.