BACKGROUND: The inflammatory reaction already becomes an important risk factor of causing acute cerebral infarction; however, the correlation between chronic bronchitis and senile cerebral infarction is still unclear.OBJECTIVE: To study whether the chronic bronchitis is the risk factor for senile cerebral infarction.DESIGN: 1:1 pair, case contrast, and risk factor study.SETTINGS: Department of Respiratory Medicine, Third Hospital of Tangshan; Department of Neurology,Affiliated Hospital of North China Coal Medical College.PARTICIPANTS: A total of 147 patients with acute cerebral infarction who were regarded as case group were selected from Department of Neurology, the Third Hospital of Tangshan from January 2004 to December 2006. All patients met the diagnostic criteria of the Fourth National Cerebrovascular Diseases Meeting. There were 87 males and 60 females, and their ages ranged from 65 to 83 years. Based on 1∶1 pair study, another 147 subjects without cerebrovascular disease were regarded as control group. Except the diseases about infection, there were 73 males and 74 females, and their ages ranged from 62 to 81 years. All subjects provided the confirm consent and agreed with the coordinate experiment.METHODS: ① Questionnaire of risk factor of cerebral infarction was designed to measure the following items: chronic bronchitis, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, hyperlipemia, coronary heart disease, primary cerebral infarction/transient ischemic attack and history of smoking. ② Cerebral infarction was regarded as the dependent variance, while chronic bronchitis, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, hyperiipemia, primary cerebral infarction/transient ischemic attack, coronary heart disease and smoking were regarded as the independent variance for multiple regression analysis.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Risk factors of senile cerebral infarction.RESULTS: All 147 patients with acute cerebral infarction and 147 subjects without cerebrovascular diseases were involved in the final analysis. ① Risk factor analysis of senile cerebral infarction: There were no significant differences in age, hyperlipemia and history of smoking between the two groups (P ＞ 0.05). But,chronic bronchitis, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, cerebral infarction/transient ischemic attack and history of coronary heart disease were higher in the case group than those in the control group (33.6% vs. 19.0%,38.8% vs. 23.3%, 54.3% vs. 36.2%, 29.3% vs. 17.2%, 44.0% vs. 29.3%, P ＜ 0.05- 0.01). ② Multiple Logistic regression analysis of risk factor of senile cerebral infarction: Hyperlipemia, smoking and coronary heart disease were not correlated with cerebral infarction (P ＞0.05), but chronic bronchitis, hypertension,diabetes mellitus and cerebral infarction/transient ischemic attack were risk factors for senile cerebral infarction (OR =2.47, 2.28, 2.18, 2.01, P ＜ 0.05 - 0.01).CONCLUSION: The chronic bronchitis may become an independent risk factor senile cerebral infarction.