We studied the relation between reactive hyperglycemia, stress hormone response, and prognosis in 40 patients following an acute stroke. The median age of the patients was 60 (range: 20-80) years. Twenty two patients were men. All patients were seen in the first 24 hour after the onset of symptoms. No subject was known to be diabetic and no one had a glycosylated hemoglobin content above the upper limit of normal. Patients were followed up until death or 21 days following their stroke. They were assessed clinically at days 0, 1, 7, 14, and 21. The outcome for each patient was assigned as good (n=19) or poor (n=21). The subjects were also classified as alive (n=29) or dead (n=11) at the 21st day. Blood samples were taken after fasting, for the determination of serum glucose, insulin, glucagon, and cortisol concentrations on days 0, 1, 2, 3, 7, 14, and 21. For all 40 patients, a significant relation was found between the serum glucose concentration and prognosis (p
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