Comparative incidence of cerebrovascular lesions in normotensive and hypertensive patients

Abstract

The frequency of cerebral ischemic and hemorrhagic lesions was studied in brains from 100 hypertensive patients dying in a general hospital together with those from 100 normotensive controls. Half of the hypertensive group showed lesions of 1 or another type, as compared with 1/4 of the normotensives. Large and small hemorrhages were almost entirely confined to the hypertensives, whereas infarcts were almost equally distributed. Small stroke lesions were frequently multiple, up to 25 small hemorrhages or cysts in 1 case of hypertension and up to 9 small infarcts or cysts in a normotensive. Only 3 of the 200 patients showed lesions of both types, hemorrhagic and ischemic. These 2 types of lesion may be distinct and separate pathological processes.