A progressive expanding focal CNS lesion called „progressive stroke“ is found significantly frequently in a group of diabetic patients with hypercholesterolaemia and normocholesterolaemia, as compared with non-diabetic subjects with high or normal cholesterol levels (p < 0.01 and p < 0.05 resp.) and the authors consider it therefore a metabolic necrosis which may be induced by a vascular attack or develops from the onset by an autonomous metabolic mechanism of anaerobic glycolysis associated with lactate accumulation which induced proteolysis. The significantly more frequent incidence of haemorrhage during sleep found in hypotonic patients and in ischaemic stroke hypertonic subjects after arousal are probably the consequence of a sudden rise of pressure of hypotension during sleep and a drop of pressure in arterial hypertension after awakening. Acute chronic respiratory insuffici- ency in stroke is a disadvantage for reeducation of gait and is significantly frequently encountered in patients who are unable to walk unaided.

        Key words: epidemiological study, stroke, necrosis, apoptosis, PCD – programmed cell death