RESUMO
INTRODUCTION: Cerebral infarction (CI) increases vascular permeability because of a torrent of molecular events that take place. It frequently leads to oedema, haemorrhage and neuronal death. Free radicals and proteases are also formed, which cause lesions in the blood vessels, and microvascular integrity is lost through degradation of the basal lamina and the extracellular matrix. As a result rupture of the blood brain barrier takes place. AIMS. To compare the electrophoretograms of patients with ischemic cerebrovascular disease (ICVD) with those of controls and to link the alterations in the proteinogram with the ICVD subtypes. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The CSF of 55 controls and 136 patients with ICVD was examined. The total protein (TP) concentration was determined and a polyacrylamide gel electrophoretogram was produced using Coomassie blue stain. Parallel to this, serum was prepared for haptoglobin staining. RESULTS: The TP in patients CSF rose to a significantly higher level than that of controls. Blood brain barrier damage (BBBD) was observed in 28.7% of the patients studied with CI and in 10.3% in transient ischemic attacks (TIA), while 16.2% presented oligoclonal bands. There was a difference between the two sexes: men were found to have higher TP levels, lower percentages of prealbumin 1 and more BBBD than women. CONCLUSIONS: BBBD is more frequent in infarctions than in TIA, and is predominant in men with thrombotic cerebral infarction.