Abstract
We allocated 19 aged patients with acute non-cardioembolic stroke to two therapy groups. They were admitted within 24 hours from the first neurological symptoms. A cranial computed tomography revealed no hypodensity. Finally we excluded patients with atrial fibrillation, myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure, renal dysfunction, respirtory failure and disseminated intravascular coagulation. 10 patients underwent administration of low-molecular weight dextran until hematocrit was reduced to 33% during the first 3 days (hypervolemic hemodilution group) and 9 patients (standard group) recieved only glycerol. In the hemodilution group, all patients improved neurological scoring with a hematocrit reduction over the first 3 days. On the other hand, no improvement of scoring and hematocrit reduction occurred in the standard group. Thus, hypervolemic hemodilution therapy improves early neurologic outcome in acute non-cardioembolic stroke and it is important to rule out cardioembolic stroke and continue hypervolemic hemodilution only for 3 days.
