Italian study of cerebral reversible ischemic attacks. II. The hematocrit and hemoglobin distribution and its relationship between clinical pattern and angiographic abnormalities.

A clinical and angiographic study was conducted in 360 patients with previous reversible ischemic attacks (RIAs) in order to verify the influence of hematocrit, hemoglobin and red cell count within the normal range in the clinical picture of cerebral infarction and its relationship with angiographic atherosclerosis. No significantly different distribution of the three parameters considered has been found according to the presence and the degree of atherosclerosis. On the contraey, our data have shown a significant correlation between levels of hematocrit, hemoglobin and red cell count and some clinical aspects of the RIA when angiographic atherosclerosis is present.