Brain ischemia

Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]

Synonyms and keywords: Cerebral ischemia; ischemic encephalopathy

Brain ischemia (or cerebral ischemia) is an ischemic condition where the brain or parts of the brain do not receive enough blood flow to maintain normal neurological function.

Cerebral ischemia can be the result of various diseases, or the result of arterial obstruction such as strangulation.

• Drugs: Pergolide, Ramucirumab, Tiagabine

Similarly to cerebral hypoxia, severe or prolonged cerebral ischemia will result in unconsciousness, brain damage or death, mediated by the ischemic cascade.

An extensive review of mechanisms by which ischemia damages the nervous system has been published by Peter Lipton.^[1]

A related condition is subcortical ischemic depression, also known as vascular depression. This condition is most commonly seen in elderly depressed patients. Late onset depression is increasingly seen as a distinct variety of depression, and is commonly detected with an MRI.

• Chang, Steven; Doty, James; Skirboll, Stephen; Steinberg, Gary. Cerebral ischemia . cgi.stanford.edu. URL last accessed February 26 2006.
• Ramirez, Robert; Gulli, Laith. Encyclopedia of Neurological Disorders: Hypoxia. health.enotes.com. URL last accessed February 26 2006. (PDF format)

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