Dissections within the carotid arteries or vertebral arteries may compromise blood flow to the brain due to thrombosis, and dissections increase the risk of vessel rupture. Idiopathic
Idiopathic diseases are those that occur spontaneously without a known cause. Moyamoya is an example of an idiopathic cerebrovascular disorder that results in narrowing and occlusion of intracranial blood vessels. The most common presentation is stroke or transient ischemic attack, but cognitive decline within children may also be a presenting symptom. The disease may begin to show symptoms beginning in adolescence, but some may not have symptoms until adulthood. Pathophysiology
Mechanism of brain cell death
When a reduction in blood flow lasting seconds occurs, the brain tissue suffers ischemia, or inadequate blood supply. If the interruption of blood flow is not restored in minutes, the tissue suffers infarction followed by tissue death. When the low cerebral blood flow persists for a longer duration, this may develop into an infarction in the border zones (areas of poor blood flow between the major cerebral artery distributions). In more severe instances, global hypoxia-ischemia causes widespread brain injury leading to a severe cognitive sequelae called hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy.An ischemic cascade occurs where an energetic molecular problem arises due to lack of oxygen and nutrients. The cascade results in decreased production of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is a high-energy molecule needed for cells in the brain to function. Consumption of ATP continues in spite of insufficient production, this causes total levels of ATP to decrease and lactate acidosis to become established (ionic homeostasis in neurons is lost).
This is approximately 129,000 deaths in 2013.Geographically, a "stroke belt" in the US has long been known, similar to the "diabetes belt" which includes all of Mississippi and parts of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. References
Further reading
Chan, Pak H. (2002-03-28). Cerebrovascular Disease: 22nd Princeton Conference. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781139439657. Mark, S. D; Wang, W; Fraumeni, J. F; Li, J.-Y; Taylor, P. R; Wang, G.-Q; Guo, W; Dawsey, S. M; Li, B; Blot, W. J (1996). "Lowered Risks of Hypertension and Cerebrovascular Disease after Vitamin/Mineral Supplementation: The Linxian Nutrition Intervention Trial". American Journal of Epidemiology. 143 (7): 658–664. doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a008798. PMID 8651227. Ning, Mingming; Lopez, Mary; Cao, Jing; Buonanno, Ferdinando S; Lo, Eng H (2012). "Application of proteomics to cerebrovascular disease". Electrophoresis. 33 (24): 3582–3597. doi:10.1002/elps.201200481. PMC 3712851. PMID 23161401. == External links ==