What is cerebral infarction?

This is a disease in which an artery leading to the brain becomes blocked and brain tissue dies. If brain cells are deprived of blood for about five minutes they die, resulting in cerebral infarction. Once damaged, brain cells do not regenerate, so sequelae such as paralysis or seizures always remain, although the degree varies.

Causes of cerebral infarction

Cerebral infarction has two mechanisms: thrombosis, in which atherosclerosis in a cerebral vessel narrows a cerebral artery and a thrombus is deposited there, blocking the vessel; and embolism, in which a clot breaks away from heart disease or from a thrombus in the carotid artery (the major vessel that supplies most of the blood to the brain) and blocks a cerebral vessel. Factors that readily cause such thrombi and emboli include diabetes, hypertension, smoking, obesity, high cholesterol, heart disease and oral contraceptives, and these act as the secondary causes of cerebral infarction.

Cerebral infarction symptoms

When a cerebral vessel is blocked, various symptoms appear depending on which part of the vessel is affected. Depending on the degree of blockage, symptoms may disappear within minutes or hours of onset with complete recovery, or they may worsen to full-body paralysis or loss of life. The most common are severe headache and paralysis or loss of sensation in one arm and leg, along with double vision, speech difficulty, dizziness severe enough to lose balance, and difficulty swallowing (dysphagia).

Cerebral infarction diagnosis

In patients with suspected cerebral infarction, brain CT or brain MRI performed early after onset makes diagnosis straightforward.

Cerebral infarction treatment

For cerebral infarction, recurrence-prevention treatment can be carried out with chelation, a vascular detoxification injection therapy recognized by the American Heart Association. If the cerebral infarction is acute, endovascular treatment such as thrombectomy must be performed. Cerebral infarction is also a condition in which treating the sequelae is important. Sequelae of cerebral infarction can be treated with rehabilitative therapy and stem cell therapy.