Cerebrovascular insufficiency
The cerebrovascular insufficiency (alternate spelling: cerebrovascular insufficiency (CVI) ) is an umbrella term for disorders of cerebral circulation by vascular lesions ( stenoses , occlusions , Gefäßschlängelungen) in the field of hirnzuführenden or cerebral vessels , especially in the atherosclerotic subcortical encephalopathy of the elderly .
In a broader sense, the term is also used imprecisely for various complaints that occur more frequently in older people (dizziness, memory disorders, concentration disorders, headaches). This use in particular is problematic, since a chronically reduced blood flow to the brain is assumed to be the cause of the symptoms, which serves as a justification for the use of drugs to increase blood flow or brain metabolism ( nootropics ). After the administration of nootropics, an increase in cerebral blood flow was observed in the SPECT , but a causal relationship between the findings of the SPECT examinations, an actually pathological reduced blood flow and the symptoms has not been scientifically proven.
From today's perspective, the term should actually be avoided, since individual forms of stroke have become distinguishable and require their own, adapted treatment; Instead, an immediate diagnostic clarification is required as to whether and what type of circulatory disorder in the brain is present. Despite all this, we speak in general practitioners German in stroke ( " stroke "), which is a sudden cerebrovascular insufficiency, still often generalize from a cerebrovascular accident or cerebrovascular accident ( English cerebrovascular accident , CVA).
