Cardiological evaluation of patients with a cerebral ischemic event: the relation between heart and brain

In this study several aspects of the cardiological evaluation of patients with cerebral ischemia are described; its usefulness for diagnosis and treatment is discussed. The aim of this thesis is to approach the clinical and epidemiological aspects of patients with cerebral ischemic events, while recogoizing the existence of beanbrain interactions in atherosclerotic disease [22]. The general idea is that the organism shonld be considered as a whole; the philosophical term for this idea is 'holism' [23, 24, 25]. In biology the holistic idea can be confirmed by the existence of generalized diseases such as atherosclerosis [26, 27, 28]. A cerebral ischemic event can be considered as a 'Gestalt'. 1bis 'Gestalt' consists of a figure and a background [21]. In the figure the special or local relationship of atherosclerosis with one patt of the organism is expressed: in cerebral ischemia the brain is the affected organ. The figure, however, may never be considered apatt from its background. In brain ischemia, the background is formed by atherosclerosis existiog in the whole organism; coronary sclerosis is pan of this background. The extent to which the specific or local charaCter of an event manifests itself, depends on the influence of the local event on the phenomenon as a whole and vice versa

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