Binswanger disease
Cerebrovascular diseases
by Jos Van der Poel
General outline
Binswanger disease is a form of vascular dementia and was first described in 1894.The illness occurs mainly in middle-aged hypertensive patients who show evidence of systematic vascular disease and who develop insidious fluctuating dementia with special involvement of memory, mood and cognition; seizures and mild strokes. Pathological features: lacunes, subcortical white matter demyelination, neuronal loss, gliosis, ventricular dilatation and atheromatosis of the larger cerebral vessels.
Synonyms
Subacute arteriosclerotic encephalopathy
Symptoms and course
- forgetfulness
- disorientation
- slowness of thought
- apathy
- lack of emotion
- depression
- aggression
- mild intellectual impairment (difficulties to think or reason)
- language difficulties
- problems reading and writing
- mood swings (sometimes extreme)
- loss of inhibitions and unusual behaviour towards other people
Causes and risk factors
The illness originates in an affection of small blood vessels in the brain, which leads to the loss of nerve cells. Risk factors are hypertension, atheriosclerosis and cardiacproblems.
Diagnostic procedures
Visible brain loss can be seen by undergoing a CT-scan. Examination of the condition of heart and blood vessels.
Care and treatment
Only the treatment of risk factors may have positive effect.
Available services
Alzheimer Europe
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L- 2611 Luxembourg
Tel: +352 / 29.79.70
Fax: +352 / 29.79.72
info@alzheimer-europe.org
www.alzheimer-europe.org
Alzheimer's Disease International
45-46 Lower Marsh
London SE1 7RG
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 / 20 7620 3011
Fax: +44 / 20 7401 7351
info@alz.co.uk
www.alz.co.uk
Last Updated: Friday 09 October 2009