Therapy of Ischemic Cerebral Vascular Disease Due to Atherothrombosis

Abstract

MOST ischemic cerebral vascular disease results from arterial narrowing or occlusion. The pathologic process may involve vessels of any size and may be intrinsic to the vessel, as in atherosclerosis, lipohyalinosis, inflammation, or dissection, or it may arise when embolic material from the heart or extracranial circulation lodges in an intracranial vessel. Because the brain cannot repair itself by forming new tissue, therapy in ischemic cerebrovascular disease is primarily preventive, though protecting ischemic brain tissue from the secondary effects of stroke is sometimes successful. The prelude to therapy is a precise diagnosis that includes not only characterization and localization of . . .