[The importance of 24-hour-blood pressure monitoring in hemodynamic and thromboembolism-induced cerebral infarcts].

Night and day blood pressure profiles of 45 patients with cerebral infarction of hemodynamic or thromboembolic origin were assessed to detect subsequent changes of circadian blood pressure variability. The data were also analysed for a possible relationship between variability of circadian blood pressure, site of cerebral infarction and activation of the autonomic nervous system. Patients with a stroke of hemodynamic origin, when compared to a control group, manifested significantly greater variability of circadian blood pressure (diastolic: -25.2 +/- 4.5% vs. -13.8 +/- 6.5%; p < 0.005). Patients who showed the greatest decrease in vasomotor reactivity (< 40%) developed a prolonged disturbance of the blood-brain barrier. This disturbance regressed slowly only after the pathological 24-hour blood pressure profile had normalized. By way of contrast, patients with cerebral infarctions due to thromboembolic events, when compared to normal individuals, showed a distinctly decreased circadian blood pressure variability (diastolic: -5.2 +/- 6.9%). Initially 40% of these patients presented a pathological increase of nocturnal blood pressure. Circadian blood pressure variability was positively correlated with serum concentration of norepinephrine (r = 0.79; p < 0.01). Patients with a stroke affecting the insular cortex manifested an increase of nocturnal blood pressure significantly more often (66.7% vs. 11.8%; p < 0.005), indicating increased sympathetic activation. They had higher serum levels of norepinephrine (540 +/- 110 pg/ml vs. 290 +/- 178 pg/ml) as compared to patients without damage to the insula and also a significantly higher incidence of prolonged QT intervals and cardiac arrhythmias.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)