Damage and Repair in the Injured CNS Flashcards
Types of CNS injury
- Spinal cord injury
- Traumatic brain injury
- Stroke
- Brain cancer
What is a hypertensive cerebral haemorrhage?
- Type of stroke
- Brain’s artery bursts and blood spreads to nearby areas
- Bleeding starts from surrounding areas
What is cerebral amyloid angiopathy and what can it cause?
- Amyloid beta-peptide deposits within small- to medium-sized blood vessels in the brain
- Can cause lobar haemorrhage (bleeding into a lobe of the cerebellum)
What are arterio-venous malformations?
Abnormal tangles of blood vessels which disrupts normal blood flow and oxygen supply
What is an aneurysm?
Bulge in a blood vessel caused by a weakness in the blood vessel wall
What are lacunar infarcts?
An artery that supplies deeper portions of the brain becomes blocked
Consequences of a traumatic brain injury
- Haematomas (epidural or subdural)
- Contusions (bleeding on surface of brain/bruise)
- Diffuse axonal injury
- Hypoxic injury
What cells suffer irreversible damage after ischemia lasting 4-5mins?
- Hippocampal and neocortical pyramidal cells
- Striatal neurones
- Purkinje cells
What cells suffer irreversible damage after a period of ischemia longer than 5mins?
Thalamic and brainstem neurones
What is cortical laminar necrosis?
Necrosis of neurones in the cortex of the brain in inadequate oxygen and glucose levels
Long-term consequences of severe traumatic brain injury
- Seizures
- Focal neurologic deficits
- Dementia
- Persistent vegetative state
- Increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease
Why is there no axonal regeneration in the CNS?
- No macrophages to clear debris
- Inhibitory molecules (Nogo, MAG, OGmp) present
Treatment options for CNS injury
- Surgery (eg. remove haematoma)
- Medication (eg. anti-seizure medication)
- Rehabilitation
