Cerebrovascular disease is one of the most common neurologic diseases, with a relatively high cases fatality ratio and a substantial personal, familial and social impact among the survivors.
Cerebrovascular disease is the third leading cause of death and the leading cause of disability in the United States. Many different cerebrovascular diseases may cause cognitive decline and dementia, including stroke, silent infarcts, ischemic white matter lesions, hereditary cerebral hemorrhage with amyloidosis, granular cortical atrophy, hypertensive encephalopathy, cerebral amyloid angiopathy and cerebral vasculitis.
The major risk factors for the development of cerebrovascular disease are hypertension and diabetes.
Other risk factors include atherosclerosis, inflammatory processes, dissecting aneurysm, disorders affecting the myocardium, congestive heart failure, polycythemia, cigarette smoking, use of oral contraceptives and postpartum infection.
Cerebrovascular disease
