Objective To investigate the relationship between blood pressure and the short-term outcome aswell as long-term outcome of cerebral infarction.Methods One hundred and twenty one inpatients with acute ischemic stroke from January2008 to October 2008 were enrolled in this retrospective analysis. Blood pressure (BP) wasconsecutively recorded everyday in the duration of hospital stay, and the mean level BP afterdischarge was also recorded; Scores of Barthel Index (BI), modified Rankin Score (mRS) andthe National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) were recorded at admission, discharge aswell as 6 months after discharge. The patients were distributed into different groups accordingto Oxford shire community stroke project (OCSP) classification and their vascular stenosis. Therelationship between BP and short-term outcome and long-term outcome were analyzed in eachgroup.Results One hundred and twenty one patients were enrolled and 109 followed-up. In the acuteperiod, blood pressure increased in 76.9% patients, and decreased afterwards. The tendency wasmost significant at the third day. Among the 59 patients of partial anterior circulation infarct(PACI), there were 55 patients followed-up. The patients whose average systolic blood pressure(SBP) of the first three days were between 120~150 mm Hg (n=29) had significantly better longtermoutcome (BI was 89.14±15.00, mRS was 1.59±1.02 at 6 months) than those whose averageSBP were higher than 150 mm Hg (n=22) (BI 78.41±20.95, mRS 2.27±1.20, P =0.023 and P =0.034respectively), or lower than 120 mm Hg (n=4) (BI 85.00±14.72, mRS 2.00±0.82, P =0.024 andP =0.032 respectively). Among the 44 patients with severe arterial stenosis or occlusion, therewere 37 patients followed-up. The BI (91.33±7.90) and mRs (1.40±0.99) at 6 months of the patientswhose average SBP of the first 3 days ≤145 mm Hg (n=15), were better than that of the patientswhose average SBP>145 mm Hg (n=22) (BI 67.70±31.42, mRS 2.68±1.29), P =0.002 and P =0.003respectively.Conclusion The outcome of patients with acute cerebral infarction is significantly related to thelevel of BP; A U-shaped relationship was found between BP and prognosis among the patients ofPACI; Among the patients with severe arterial stenosis or occlusion, patients whose SBP averageof the first 3 days≤145 mm Hg had good outcome than those whose SBP>145 mm Hg, suggestingthat BP should be controlled properly even in the patients with severe vascular stenosis.
