[Acute cerebrovascular disorders--clinical aspects and diagnosis].

Loss of neurologic function with acute onset is a hallmark of cerebrovascular disease, but may have several other etiologies. Knowledge of the functional significance of the different brain areas and of their vascular supply is a prerequisite for localizing a lesion. Clinical presentation alone often does not allow etiological diagnosis, which eventually decides upon treatment modality. For that purpose, we need the help of various investigational techniques with different content of information. Their selection depends on individual anamnestic and clinical findings and has to consider the therapeutical possibilities in the individual case, too.