[Brain-heart interaction: a controlled prospective study of the electrocardiographic disorders in 100 consecutive patients with acute ischemic cerebrovascular pathology].

We carried out a prospective clinical study in 100 patients with cerebral infarctions (Cl) (56 lacunar and 44 nonlacunar infarctions) and in a control group (n = 100) without organic cerebrovascular disease to evaluate the electrocardiographic (ECG) abnormalities. 72% of the Cl and 38% of the control group had ECG abnormalities (p less than 0.0001). These abnormalities were significantly more common (p less than 0.001) at the beginning of the disease (72%) than three weeks after the development of focal neurological symptoms (54%). The major ECG findings were abnormal ventricular repolarization (changes in the ST segment and the T wave), prolonged Q-Tc interval, and U waves. Atrial fibrillation was significantly more common (p less than 0.03) in nonlacunar infarctions (18%) than in lacunar infarctions (2%) and in the control group (5%). Regarding the topography of the lesions, abnormalities of ECG were found in 80% of hemispheric infarctions, in 66% of the infarcts of basal ganglia, and in 73% of brainstem infarctions. In Cl, ECG abnormalities are common. They may be reversible, and some of them are usually correlated with the type of Cl and with the involved brain topography.