What is cerebrovascular disease?

  Cerebrovascular disease is a group of diseases in which lesions occur in the arteries of the brain or the carotid arteries innervating the brain, thus causing impaired intracranial blood circulation and damage to brain tissue. The main clinical manifestations are sudden fainting, unconsciousness, or accompanied by distorted mouth and eyes, unfavorable speech and hemiparesis.  According to its course, cerebrovascular disease can be divided into two types: acute cerebrovascular disease (stroke) and chronic cerebrovascular disease. Acute cerebrovascular diseases include transient ischemic attack, cerebral thrombosis, cerebral embolism, hypertensive encephalopathy, cerebral hemorrhage and subarachnoid hemorrhage, etc.; chronic cerebrovascular diseases include cerebral arteriosclerosis, cerebrovascular dementia, cerebral artery steal syndrome, Parkinson’s disease, etc. When we talk about cerebrovascular disease, we generally refer to acute cerebrovascular disease, which has an acute onset and is often life-threatening, therefore, it is also easy to attract people’s attention. Chronic cerebrovascular disease has a long course and is easy to be ignored.  Cerebrovascular disease can be divided into two categories according to its nature, one is ischemic cerebrovascular disease, which is more common clinically, accounting for about 70% to 80% of all cerebrovascular patients, due to cerebral arteriosclerosis and other reasons, so that the cerebral artery lumen narrowing, blood flow reduction or complete obstruction, cerebral blood circulation disorders, brain tissue damage and a series of symptoms. Another category is hemorrhagic cerebrovascular disease, mostly caused by long-term hypertension, congenital cerebrovascular malformation and other factors. Due to the rupture of blood vessels, blood overflows, compressing brain tissue and obstructing blood circulation, patients often show symptoms such as increased brain pressure and confusion. These patients account for about 20% to 30% of cerebrovascular diseases.  In addition, since the 1970s, due to the widespread use of CT and MRI, some cerebrovascular diseases with coexisting hemorrhage and infarction, i.e., mixed stroke, have been reported to account for 2.67% of hospitalizations for various cerebrovascular diseases in the same period. Its etiology and pathogenesis are not fully understood, but hypertension and atherosclerosis are considered to be important causes and closely related to its severity.  According to domestic and foreign epidemiological surveys, cerebrovascular disease is a class of common diseases that seriously threaten human health and life expectancy. According to the statistical data of Beijing in 1994, the incidence of cerebrovascular disease ranked first. Cerebrovascular disease is currently one of the three major diseases causing human death in the world. According to the 1991 statistics in China, the number of stroke incidence reached 1.5 million each year, which is the first cause of death in many regions.  Cerebrovascular disease not only has a high mortality rate, but also a high disability rate. Some patients are critically ill, and after rescue, they suffer from hemiplegia, dysphagia, aphasia or dementia, causing a heavy burden to families and society.  The main risk factors for cerebrovascular disease are: (1) hypertension and cerebral atherosclerosis; (2) diabetes mellitus; (3) coronary heart disease; (4) family tendency, etc.  Cerebrovascular disease is characterized by rapid onset, rapid development and high family morbidity, and is the focus of family emergency care.