Hematocrits of 131 cerebral infarction cases were correlated with the outcome at 2 weeks. Bivariate analysis showed that cases with more intense admission deficit had lower admission hematocrit and that cases with poorer outcome had lower Day 2 and 4 hematocrits. However, multivariate analysis of several prognostic factors (including hematocrit, glycemia, blood pressure, age, and sex) showed that hematocrit was not independently related to outcome. Higher hematocrit thus is not indicative of less favorable short-term outcome.