Cerebrospinal Fluid Cytology After Stroke

Abstract

Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples obtained by consecutive lumbar puncture of 26 patients with presumed pale cerebral infarction, 66 with presumed hemorrhagic infarction, 16 with lobar hematoma, and 18 with cerebral infarction verified at autopsy, were examined with a cytological method permitting a total and differential cell count. A transitory outflow of polymorphonuclear neutrophilic leukocytes (PNL) was found in 70% of the patients with hemorrhagic infarction and lobar hematoma, with a peak three to four days after onset. The strongest PNL reaction was recorded in CSF from patients with lobar hematoma. In 75% of patients with pale infarction, no PNL or only a few PNL were found. In the autopsy group the PNL reaction in the brain as well as in the CSF was stronger in patients with hemorrhagic infarcts than in those with pale infarcts.