Cerebrovascular Haemodynamic Parameters: reproducibility and changes following acute stroke

Introduction: This Thesis will discuss the importance of stroke disease, and review the existing literature regarding acute stroke blood pressure (BP) changes and management. It will also review methods of measuring cerebral autoregulation, and the effects of stroke, hypertension, and antihypertensive therapy on cerebral autoregulation. Using an established method of measuring cerebral autoregulation this Thesis will examine the reproducibility of this method in a study of healthy volunteers. The same measurement technique will then be used to examine the effects of ageing on cerebral autoregulation in a cohort of healthy volunteers. The effects of acute stroke and early recovery on cerebral autoregulation will then be studied and compared to healthy controls. In addition it will consider the potential effects of stroke type, clinical features, and history of hypertension on cerebral autoregulation post-stroke.