[Role of latent anomalies in carbohydrate metabolism in the pathogenesis of vascular lesions of the brain].

The authors conducted a study of tolerance to glucose with the aid of a prednisolone-glucose-tolerance test in 2 groups of patients with brain strokes. The first group consisted of 63 patients younger than 45 years, the second-of 5 cases-older than 55 years of age. In both groups a positive prednisolone-glucose-tolerance test was found in patients with atherosclerosis or hypertensive disease and was not ever seen in strokes of other etiology (rheumatism, nonspecific vasculitis, cerebral vascular aneurysms, blood diseases, etc.). Irrespective of the age, latent diabetus was somewhat more frequently depicted in severe, generalized forms of atherosclerosis. The authors are of the opinion that larvated abnormalities of the carbohydrate metabolism are one of the significant "risk" factors facilitating earlier onset of atherosclerosis and hypertensive disease, as well as their different complications, including cerebral stokes. The report contains facts according to which dysglycemia seen in older patients should be considered not as a physiological aging sysmptoms, but as a sign of latent diabetus.