Recovery from cerebral ischaemia. EEG, cerebral blood flow and clinical symptomatology in the first three years after a stroke.

In 43 patients suffering from unilateral supratentorial ischaemia the changes over an interval of 3 years in clinical score, quantified EEG (using the neurometric method) and CBF (Xenon inhalation method) were studied. The patients were examined 3 times: shortly after the onset of ischaemia and respectively 3 and 36 months after this first measurement. Three patients died from causes not related to cerebral ischaemia. In the surviving patients the EEG and clinical score improved, often dramatically; the CBF values did not change significantly. Most of the changes occurred in the first 3 months after the stroke. For the evaluation of the prognostic value of the various parameters, 2 sub-groups of patients with different outcome but comparable initial clinical scores were studied. A persistent neurological deficit was predicted by a low CBF at the first measurement. The neurometric parameters obtained from the initial EEG had no value in this respect.