The brain serves us faithfully for life. But there are many different diseases that disrupt his work and reduce the quality of human life. One of such very insidious and complex diseases is vascular encephalopathy. It can occur against the background of previous infections, as well as due to tumors and various injuries. The cause of this disease may be a pathology of the vessels of the brain or a number of other diseases and disorders.
What does the concept of "vascular encephalopathy" mean? This is an organic lesion that occurs in non-inflammatory brain tissue. It occurs due to insufficiency of cerebral circulation. Depending on the cause of the occurrence, such a disease is divided into atherosclerotic or hypertensive form. This can be added and mixed, as well as venous forms. But it is not always possible to determine exactly what the nature of the lesion is. The vessels of the brain can be damaged due to rheumatism due to systemic diseases of the connective tissue. Vascular encephalopathy can be caused by blood diseases or hypodynamic disorders. In this case, damage can occur in arteries or in the veins of the brain, as well as its membranes.
Depending on the stage of the disease, the main symptoms are completely different. So, the signs of encephalopathy in the compensated stage are as follows: the patient has impaired memory, he does not perceive new information, attacks of headache, dizziness and heaviness in the head appear. A person becomes anxious, sleeps poorly, he experiences emotional breakdowns, his mood is constantly changing. Most often, patients try to hide such symptoms from others.
If vascular encephalopathy is in a subcompensated stage, then the patient may lose balance, it is difficult for him to move around the city on his own, a person constantly forgets everything, physical activity decreases. If we talk about mental status, speech impairment is manifested here, the patient experiences tearfulness and depressed mood, attention is impaired, and it becomes difficult to swallow. There is also a decompensated stage, when disorders occur not only in neurological and psychological status, but also signs of focal disorders appear. It can be seizures or even epilepsy attacks. To reveal at what stage and in what form the disease is done, a tomogram of the brain is made, as well as other studies of its vessels. To exclude toxic and metabolic encephalopathy, clinical and biochemical blood tests are taken, as well as a hormonal profile is examined.
The effectiveness of the treatment of this disease depends on how correctly and accurately the nature and degree of vascular damage was identified. For treatment, drugs that affect the blood lipid profile are used. It is very important to normalize blood pressure and venous outflow. To improve the microcirculation processes, various angioprotectors and antiplatelet agents, as well as antispasmodics, are used. Only a doctor can prescribe treatment, it is simply impossible to cope with such a disease on your own.
There is still a very dangerous condition, acute hepatic encephalopathy or Reye's syndrome. Such a disease occurs in children aged four to twelve years. The causes may be viral diseases that were treated with acetylsalicylic acid preparations. In this case, cerebral edema develops very quickly, and the liver is affected. Reye's syndrome manifests itself already on the fifth to sixth day of a viral disease. Symptoms are vomiting and impaired consciousness. If you do not call the doctor on time, then a coma may occur, the child may die. To prevent this serious disease, you should abandon the use of acetylsalicylic acid preparations in the treatment of viral diseases in children under the age of fifteen.
The main symptom of acute hepatic encephalopathy in adults is a disorder of consciousness. The patient begins to get confused in words and thoughts, increased or inhibited psychomotor activity is manifested. After this, drowsiness increases, stupor and coma ensue. Very often, such a syndrome ends fatally. During treatment, the use of protein is limited, and mechanical intestinal cleansing is performed.