Why is “vascular health management” the latest concept in cerebrovascular disease management?

  Vascular health management refers to taking the health status of cerebrovascular as the core of risk assessment and treatment target of cerebrovascular disease, formulating individualized health management prescriptions based on the results of cerebrovascular examination and the analysis of intervenable risk factors, and regularly reviewing the vascular condition in a targeted manner to verify the efficacy and adjust the treatment.  The traditional prevention and treatment concept puts the control of risk factors as the core, only emphasizing the intervention of harmful aspects, such as smoking cessation and alcohol restriction, blood pressure, blood glucose and lipid management, and although good results have been achieved, many patients still relapse.  In contrast, the core of cerebrovascular health management is cerebrovascular health status, which not only emphasizes interventions on harmful aspects, but also highlights the education of beneficial aspects, such as exercise and diet regulation. More importantly, the use of cerebrovascular health status as a therapeutic target is groundbreaking, breaking through the limitations of isolated analysis of one indicator of blood pressure, blood glucose or blood lipids, allowing for a holistic approach to treatment efficacy, and even guiding an intervention in turn.  Currently, vascular ultrasound is the most commonly used tool for cerebrovascular assessment. By detecting carotid intima-media thickness, plaque size and properties, it is possible not only to assess the risk of cerebral infarction, but also to evaluate the efficacy. Increased carotid intima-media thickness not only indicates carotid atherosclerosis, but also serves as a window to indirectly reflect the degree of intracranial atherosclerosis; larger or unstable plaques suggest a higher risk of cerebral infarction.  If the intima becomes thinner and the plaque shrinks or becomes stable after treatment, the risk of cerebral infarction is greatly reduced. This approach also allows the evaluation of an intervention, for example, to observe which class of antihypertensive drugs is more advantageous in preventing cerebral infarction, and it is no longer simply a matter of whether blood pressure is controlled to the desired target, but also whether the indicators of carotid ultrasound are satisfactory.  Therefore, compared with the traditional prevention and control concept, the cerebrovascular health management concept is more objective, comprehensive and easy to put into practice, and can more effectively reduce the incidence of cerebrovascular disease, disability and mortality.