Cerebrovascular disease

Description

Cerebrovascular disease is a condition characterized by disruption of blood circulation to the brain, which leads to the limitation or complete absence of blood flow to the affected areas.

The most common forms of the disease are cerebral thrombosis /40% of cases / and cerebral embolism /30%/, followed by cerebral hemorrhage /20%/.

Another form of the clinical condition is aneurysms. In women with defective collagen, protrusions appear along the branches of blood vessels with a very thin coating of endothelium, which can be disrupted even by minimal increase in blood pressure.

This can also happen in capillaries where there is a deposit of low-density cholesterol. If bleeding occurs, the result is a hemorrhagic stroke in the form of a subarachnoid hemorrhage or an intracerebral hemorrhage.

A drop in blood pressure during sleep can lead to a significant reduction in blood flow in the narrowed blood vessels causing an ischemic stroke in the morning. Conversely, a sudden increase in blood pressure due to daytime arousalcan cause blood vessels to rupture, leading to intracranial hemorrhage.

Cerebrovascular disease mainly affects people who are elderly or have a history of diabetes, smoking or ischemic heart disease.

What are the symptoms?

A symptom is what the patient feels through his senses and describes and a sign is what other people observe, for example the doctor, for example dilated pupils are a sign.

Signs and symptoms depend on the location of the hemorrhage, thrombus, or embolism and the extent of brain tissue involvement. The generalized signs and symptoms of a hemorrhagic or ischemic accident are motor dysfunction such as hemiplegia and hemiparesis.

At the beginning of the cerebrovascular accident, the patient may feel mild paralysis, followed by increased muscle tone and spasticity. He may lose his reflexes and the ability to cough. The affected person may also experience communication deficits such as dysphagia, receptive or expressive aphasia, dysatria and apraxia.

What causes it?

Ischemic stroke occurs when a blood vessel supplying blood to the brain is blocked by a blood clot. And a clot can form in an artery that is already severely narrowed. This clot is called a thrombus.

If it completely blocks the artery, the condition is called a thrombotic stroke. Also, a blood clot can break off from somewhere else in the body and travel through the bloodstream up to the brain and block more small blood vessel, the condition is defined as an embolism and causes an embolic stroke.

Ischemic strokes can be caused by blood clots that have formed in the heart. These clots can travel through the blood stream to the small arteries of the brain and cause the blockage of one of them. This condition is referred to as a cerebral embolism.

Treatment of cerebrovascular disease

Inhibitors of blood platelets such as aspirin, dipyridamole, ticlopidine, clopidogrel and sulfinpyrazone are effective in reducing the risk of stroke. These drugs are effective in treating patients with a history of stroke or those at risk of a recent cerebrovascular accident.
Carotid endarterectomy is a procedure in which an incision is made in the carotid artery and removesthe accumulated plaque using a dissection instrument, allowing the restoration of normal blood flow to the brain. The artery is then sutured.