Stroke is a type of cerebrovascular disease that involves the vesselsof the central nervous system. It usually occurs with sudden onset due to a burst of cerebral arteries, hemorrhage, or occlusion by a thrombus or other particles, leading to ischaemia and to focal brain dysfunction. Immediately, nerve cells depleted of oxygen in the involved vascular territory will be functionally disturbed and die if the circulation is not promptly restored.
Cerebrovascular disease can develop from a variety of causes, including atherosclerosis, where the arteries become narrow; thrombosis, or embolic arterial blood clot, which is a blood clot in an artery of the brain; or cerebral venous thrombosis, which is a blood clot in a vein of the brain.
Ischemia or hemorrhage are the byproducts of cerebrovascular disease, manifest as sudden, focal neurological deficits related to specific vascular territories of the central nervous system.
Impairment or loss of consciousness is a global deficit, which rarely is caused by simultaneous, extensive or multiple hemorrhages or ischemic infarctions, and is more commonly due to other causes such as cerebral hypoperfusion, vasovagal syncope, or toximetabolic disorders.
Many risk factors for cerebrovascular disease have been described. They may refer to inherent biological traits such as age and sex, physiological characteristics that predict future occurrence such as high blood pressure, serum cholesterol, fibrinogen; behaviors such as smoking, diet, alcohol consumption, physical inactivity; social characteristics such as education, social class and ethnicity; and environmental factors that may be physical (temperature, altitude), geographical, or psychosocial.
Cerebrovascular disease - variety disturbances of the vascularization of the brain
