Response to the Letter by Dr. Hanne Christensen: Blood Pressure in Acute Stroke

Accessible online at: www.karger.com/ced Dear Sir, We thank Dr. Christensen [1] for her letter and the opportunity to clarify our findings. Dr. Christensen’s main concerns appear to be how we handled data from patients in whom the time of stroke onset was not certain and how data from patients in whom there was a significant delay between stroke onset and admission might have affected our findings. There were 44 patients (28%) in whom the time of stroke onset was not certain because symptoms of stroke were first noted on waking. In these patients the time of stroke was defined as the time when a neurological deficit was first noted. We accept that this might have some impact on the results if there is an important difference between the actual time of stroke onset and our defined time of onset. However, the known morning surge in stroke inciCerebrovasc Dis 2008;26:210–211 DOI: 10.1159/000145332