Use of anticoagulants in patients with progressive cerebral infarction

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Abstract
A series of 76 patients was selected from 277 patients admitted to Ashford Hospital, Middlesex, during 1956, 1957, 1958, and 1959 with the clinical diagnosis of cerebral infarction. The selection was made by including only those patients below the age of 70 who had a diastolic blood pressure persistently below 120 mm Hg, macroscopically clear cerebrospinal fluid, a history of gradual onset of symptoms, and some degree of consciousness preserved. Alternate patients in this selected series were treated with anticoagulant therapy for 4 weeks, and the results were assessed and analyzed after 6 months. Improvement in the treated group occurred, but the results were not quite significant unless further selection was made to include only patients whose lesions were incomplete. Terminology has been discussed, and the best description of this type of case seems to be progressive cerebral infarction. It appears that anticoagulant therapy in this series markedly improved the immediate survival rate of cerebral infarction by preventing pulmonary infarction and also improved the recovery rate of patients with progressive cerebral infarction.