Diseases 1 Flashcards
CVD, Epilepsy, spinal chord injury
What does the neurovascular unit do?
Regulate cerebral blood flow
Name some components of the neurovascular unit
- neurons
- astrocytes
- VSMCs
- endothelial cells
- pericytes
- extracellular matrix
What can high blood pressure cause?
Hypertension
What amount of adults have hypertensin?
1/3
What is atherosclerosis?
Elevated blood fats which reduces blood vessel diameter and blood flow which decreases vascular reactivity
What are the two types of cerebral vascular dysfunction?
- Ischaemic stroke
- Cerebral small vessel disease
What is a penumbra?
Reversibly injured brain tissue around an ischaema
What is an ischaemic stroke?
Lack of glucose and oxygen in the brain causing uncontrolled firing
Why are ischaemic strokes hard to diagnose?
They cause no pain
How can we diagnose an ischaemic stroke?
- CT scan (faster)
- MRI
How can we treat an ischaemic stroke?
Recanalisation (give a blood supply)
What do you end up with after an ischaemic stroke?
A pseudosyst with no regeneration, will see an astroglial scar
What can cerebral small vessel disease lead to?
Vascular dementia
How can we diagnose small vessel disease?
MRI or PET findings
(can see impaired glucose metabolism)
Can we treat cerebral small vessel disease?
No, but can can slow it down by…
- lower blood pressure
- treating atrial fibrillation
- managing diabetes
What are the five main causes of epilepsy?
- structural
- genetic
- inflections
- metabolic disorder
- immune
What are the four types of epilepsy onset?
- focal onset
- generalised onset
- unknown onset
- unclassified
What is temporal lobe epilepsy?
Is 60% of all focal epilepsy and causes a loss of neurons and astrogliosis
What do ASMs do?
Available for symptomatic treatment, 1st, 2nd, 3rd generation drugs available
What ASM can you not give to pregnant women?
Valproate
What happens when you remove the Mg2+ block from NMDA receptors?
Provokes seizures, increasing the concentration of Mg2+ makes it harder to trigger seizures
How does perampanel work?
A non-competitor AMPAR
Why are kainate receptors important for epilepsy treatment?
They are a target for convulsant shellfish toxins
What are absence seizures?
Involve cortical and thalamic interactions with increased GABA levels
How can cannabinol be used as an ASM?
- antagonist of GPR55 receptors
- desensitises excitatory TRPV1 channels
- inhibits adenosine uptake
How can a ketogenic diet be used as AS therapy?
- promotes production of ketone bodies
- produces ATP but inhibits Adk so less AMP produced
- causes more adenosine
- more activation of anticonvulsant A1Rs
