Antecedents: Hyperhomocysteinemia has recently been recognized as contributing directly or associatively to the arteriosclerotic process in cerebral infarction.
Objective: To determine plasmatic homocysteine levels in with patients with acute cerebral infarction and to seek an association between clinical sub-types of cerebral lesion and homocysteine levels and risk factors present.
Materials and methods: A descriptive study was carried out on patients diagnosed with acute cerebral infarction. The study included 22 patients of both sexes between the ages of 40 and 85 years. Samples were collected on the second day of hospitalization after 12 h of fasting.
Results: In 13 of 22 patients, elevated levels of serum homocysteine were found. The homocysteine average was 20-68 mumol/l +/- 9.6 SD. No association between degree of cerebral lesion and risk factors was found (p > 0.05).
Conclusion: An increase in homocysteine was found in 59% of cerebral infarction patients. No correlation between hyperhomocysteinemia and known risk factors such as smoking, alcoholism, high blood pressure, and diabetes was found. It is necessary to continue this line of investigation to identify conditioning factors that elevate homocysteine and to implement measures to lower levels of hyperhomocysteinemia, thus helping reduce the incidence of cerebrovascular disease.