The articles and short communications in this volume are based on papers
pre- sented to the Symposium on Cerebral Hypoxia and Stroke held in
Budapest in August of 1987. Besides participants at the meeting, three
scientists who were invited but could not attend have also contributed
chapters to this volume. A synopsis of the general discussion at the
conference and a review chapter conclude this volume. To the readers of
this book it will not be news that stroke is a worldwide problem.
Efforts to cope with this often devastating condition are worldwide
also, as attested by the international membership of the conference. It
has been said of oxygen deficiency that it not only stops the machine,
it also wrecks the machinery. The paramount question in stroke research
is this: why can't the brain be restarted after a hypoxic episode in
much the same manner as a motor car can when its gas tank is refilled
after it stalled because it ran out of fuel? Participants at the
Symposium had been requested in advance of the meeting to especially
consider a series of specific questions in relation to this general
problem. Among these specific questions were: the mechanism of synaptic
blockade in hypoxic brain tissue; the transition from reversible to
irreversible arrest of function; the nature of postischemic (delayed)
cell death; the possible basic differences in the consequences of
hypoxia and ischemia; and actual and potential approaches to the
prevention and treatment of cell damage in hypoxia and stroke.